Turtles

I've always thought that turtles were some of the coolest animals in the world. First of all they are able to swim in the water and crawl on the land. When they are in danger, all they have to do is pull their head, arms and legs into their shell and they're fine. Also baby turtles are some of the cutest animals I have ever seen.
I actually once had a pet turtle. This turtle was left to us, as a gift of sorts, by Yugo, a friend that moved to Japan. It was not a very special turtle, just a regular painted turtle of average size, no bigger than my face. This turtle wasn't a very interesting turtle, all it ever really did was swim around in its tank or sit bathing in its lamp on the artificial rock on the surface of the water. I never really knew how to take care of this turtle, just fed it everyday and cleaned out the tank every so often. In fact, the most interesting thing to watch was probably when it ate its food, small pellets of turtley nutrition. Eventually this turtle became to much of a hassle, and my mother made me set it free. And so we drove to some pond, and released it into the wild.
Sometimes I wonder if my turtle is still out there somewhere, happily swimming with new turtle friends it has made. I wonder if it knew how to handle water deeper than its tank, if it somehow drowned in the pond we set it free in. Wherever it is, whether still in its pond, or above us in turtle heaven, I hope that it is happy.