So there is this box turtle that lives in the woods in my back yard. We've only seen it a handful of times, but today when my wife was leaving for work she saw it by the garage. And while she was moving it she noticed it had some kind of growth on its neck. Expecting it would need help, I lined a box with a towel and put the turtle in.

I contacted a local wildlife helpline and explained the issue, they spoke to a reptile rehab and called me back letting me know that it would likely need medical attention. They told me the address of the closest ER vet open that accepts wildlife patients. I looked it up and it's 45 minutes from my house.

Well, I packed my kids into the car and drove the turtle to the vet. My oldest was super excited to help the turtle, and even made a special bed for it. One listening of The Princess in Black audiobooks later, we arrived at the vet.

I filled out a wildlife surrender form (mostly so they know it hadn't bitten anyone and where it was found) and they took it back. Once they were situated, they invited the kids back to see how they were taking care of the turtle and showed us how to identify that it is a female turtle. I think it meant a lot to them to see other adults taking good care of this animal.

Then I drove us home and stopped to get slushies from Sonic on the way.