Hello,

Today I was across the street at my mother’s house and we discovered what we think is either a western or ornate box turtle in her front yard in the rocks under a low shrub with red berries. We were concerned because my mother’s yard is really not a turtle friendly environment -- no dirt exposed. It may have wandered over from the next door neighbor’s yard which is not enclosed, but if it did I am certain that it was not really their turtle -- they are not animal people and constantly have yard maintenance people in their yard. (At least twice a week.) The neighbors no longer speak to anyone on the street, so it is not possible to ask if it’s theirs. However, they’re an older couple who never did like pets except their one indoor cat.

We have temporarily moved the turtle to our back yard until we can get advice on whether to put it back where we found it or to leave it in our back yard or what. We’re concerned that in my mother’s front yard it is going to wander into the street or get hurt when her own lawn people come.

My back yard is grass in the center, and overgrown leafy vines and things along the border. We aren’t sure what this turtle eats, so we don’t know if that would be adequate. We do have a dog, and we are making sure to go and stay outside with her when she goes out, but she’s not an aggressive dog and we don’t feel that she would hurt the turtle.

Any suggestions you could give me or links or other information you could point me to would be really appreciated. Do you think we’d be better to just put it back in the rocks under the bush with the berries where we found it?

I have enclosed top and bottom view photos. The hand is my husband’s so it’s a fairly large hand for size judgement.