The story of Sally, the great escape artist.

If you look closely inside the little square plastic container a.k.a. Sally's pond, you will indeed see Sally. She is our very tiny pet box turtle rescued out of Pokey's mouth in April of 2007. Yep, she's lived in an average sized plastic 'shoe' box ever since then, safely at the Huggler house for approximately the last 18 months.

Sally is certainly a great escape artist. Not once but twice she had somehow scaled the side of the 'shoe' box and jumped ship. I'm sure she didn't expect to fall off the side of Austin's dresser and nearly knock herself out of the shell. Twice she did this but the first time she was only an escapee for a day when she was spotted in the living room. She had traveled quite a distance for such a tiny turtle. The second time she escaped, she was traveling around this house for nearly a week. Austin was about in panic mode, Aaron was searching and I was beginning to wonder if someone had squished her along the way, not realizing it. We pretty much thought she was a goner and figured we'd find the remnants of her eventually.

I was getting ready to leave for work when I noticed I had left the bathroom light on (oops! not always the boys to blame) anyway, I walked through the living room, flipped the light off in the bathroom as I walked through it to the back hallway. As I rounded the corner, I nearly stepped on a rock. I was thinking to myself 'boys, this would ruin my vacuum' and as I went to pick it up, the rock casually moved. I flipped the hallway light on and there she was, the great escapee had been captured once again! When I picked Sally up, she was as dry as a bone and extremely light. I took her in the bathroom and ran some warm water in the sink to let her swim for a minute as I prepared a much larger home for her to live. I found a bigger plastic container and found a very small, shallow container, filled it with rocks and water for her own personal pond. Then grabbed a dab of lettuce, piece of diced tomato and a chunk of red cabbage. Upon re-entry to the bathroom, there sits Sally in the basin, drinking water and taking her front legs and 'washing' her face as if she were a cat. I watched her until it nearly made me late for work. I then placed Sally in her new habitat, sat it on the coffee table and proceeded onto work.

The boys had meandered to the Market after school that day, not realizing the great surprise I had for them! They hurried home, grateful she was alive and thriving. So for now, Sally the Great is living happily in plain site for all of us to watch. It's incredible how entertaining a turtle the size of a fifty cent piece can be, it's even more amazing how much we adore her :)