“Stop, Burt!” I braked.
We were driving home one summer afternoon in 2023 when Becky spotted a box turtle crossing our driveway and called out. I thought the turtle was probably a male because, as I got out of the truck and walked up, it drew into its shell with a hiss then stared back at me with red eyes. Female box turtles don’t tend to react so warily, and their eyes are brown. Then I recognized a distinctive notch in the turtle’s shell and held him up for Becky to see, decalring “It’s Dryback!” Unlike the rest of the box turtles that we were on a first-name basis with that summer, this one male left the top of his domed shell exposed when he cooled off in a mud hole we called Turtle Wallow. The other turtles there would sink deep into the ooze until only their nostrils were exposed.
