Sam and a Turtle

Today we got to keep Sam, Doug and Matt's miniature poodle, all day and take him to the groomer for a haircut. Actually he wasn't all that shaggy: his coat was just past the nappy stage, bordering on curly, but his nails were long. We hadn't seen him in about six weeks so we enjoyed being greeted with Sam's enthusiastic tail wags when Matt brought him by at 7 a.m.

As Sam and I were heading out to get in the van for the trip to Norma the Groomer's, we saw this turtle, marching across the driveway toward the backyard fence. Someone in the past had painted a red blotch on its shell, so it may have been a pet, or perhaps noted in a scientific study. I remember the annual spring and fall migrations of turtles in Tulsa, where I grew up. It always was a mystery to me how they got through fenced yards, and I wondered how far they really traveled. By the time I dropped Sam off, ran some errands, and came home an hour later, there was no trace of this determined reptile anywhere in the yard. It was headed north so I hope if it got as far as the busy street, it made it across all right.

Norm mowed the lawn and then the sky started to look threatening. Our whole area was under a tornado watch, but all of the rough weather went south of St. Louis today. Sam came home from the groomer smelling sweet, with coat like soft, sheared velvet, but he wasn't in much of a mood to sit still for a picture. Matt came by after work and had dinner with us before he and Sam headed back to Edwardsville. Having Sam around makes us just a bit nostalgic for the days when we had a dog of our own.