Photo at URL
TELEGRAPH-FORUM (Bucyrus, Ohio) 01 July 05 Brothers bring home big turtles - Sandusky River yields box treasures (Gary Ogle)
Bucyrus: Jennifer Garcia is never quite sure what her three boys will bring home from the Sandusky River.
“They love to catch stuff out of the river,” she said. “The caught a frog the other day that had swallowed a chub.”
But this week’s catch of the day has been turtles, two big box turtles. The boys — 12-year-old Brandon and 8-year-old twins Mark and Louis — brought home their first catch Monday and another Tuesday.
“We thought they were rocks, but they were right up on shore,” Brandon said about reptiles with moss-covered shells.
Looking at Tuesday’s find, Mark said, “I picked it up.”
Jennifer Garcia contacted Wildlife Haven when they noticed Monday’s turtle was completely without claws on two legs, one front and one rear.
“Wildlife Haven told us the one with the stubs was born that way,” Jennifer Garcia said.
She added, the turtles weren’t snappers, “I think they’re box turtles.”
“They hiss though,” Louis said. “You wanna see him?”
The boys were playing under the West Sandusky Street bridge that spans the river and looking for crawdads when they found the first turtle. Wildlife Haven told their mother the turtles were likely coming up onto the shore to lay their eggs when the boys found them.
The boys were keeping the turtles, the biggest they’ve ever caught, outside in coolers filled with water. But Tuesday evening, raccoons carted away the deformed one, leaving the boys with only one.
Their mother said it’s destiny was not going to be a soup pot, but the river from which it came.
“Yeah, right,” Louis ob-jected. “We’re keeping him.”
When his mother insisted it was going back, his twin said, “That’s OK, we can have it for a little while.”
Brothers bring home big turtles
