Why did the turtle cross the road?

I felt inspired a few days ago to take time out of the business of the every day for the little things in life.

Like turtles.

I was driving home from a friend's house when I spotted a turtle crossing the road. "How fun!" I thought, so I stepped on the brakes to turn around. I thought it would be so neat to show the girls a real turtle, let them touch it, then set it free to continue it's journey.

I stopped the car, did a U-turn, and pulled up next to the the turtle; he was right outside of the girls' window. There were two cars coming up behind me, so we waited. The first car passed, then the second car came up next to our van, and I heard a THUMP.

I scrunched my eyes, gripped the steering wheel and put my head down.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," I mutterd.

All was silent in the van.

I looked down and saw the dead turtle with it's shell smashed into pieces on it's back.

And it was still twitching.

"Aaaaah.....it's... dead." is all I could say. (I couldn't say almost dead.)

There was more silence as we all stared out the window at the broken body of the turtle.

One of the girls in the back said, "It's red."

I turned my head toward the road, placed both hands on the steering wheel, stared out the window for a minute, (mouth hanging open and a bit traumatized) put the van into drive, and solemnly drove off.

"The turtle's dead, girls." I said weakly, expecting some tears from at least one of my girls.

"Yup. It's dead." they responded ever-so-bluntly, without any hint of sadness in their little voices.

And that was all the sympathy I got for the poor animal.

"What if the turtle was a mommy with babies!?" (I was trying to get some pity for the reptile.)

"Yeah! Then we could go catch it's babies and there would be one for you, and you, and you, and me!" shouted Lily from the backseat.

I can see that pity for dead reptiles is not ingrained in my girls.

At all.

And I'm not really sure how I feel about that...

I turned the van around again after finding another good spot for a U-turn, and headed toward home.... we passed the turtle again. I was wondering if it was completely dead yet, because when we left the thing, it's little legs and head were still moving. (Eew.) I actually debated running it over again to finish the job and put it out of it's misery, but I just couldn't.

Soooo, my teachable moment didn't go so well, and the turtle probably would have made it to the other side safely if I had not stopped to try to educate my little women.

Oh well.

So why did the turtle cross the road?

We'll never know.

:)