The Blood of A Turtle

I tried to rescue a turtle today in the roadway. I went to pick him up with an old sweatshirt I had in the back of my car. I wanted to put him over on the other side of a not-very-busy road, where there was a stream and lots of shady green foliage.

When I picked him up, wrapping him in the sweatshirt, he squirmed like mad. He had a beautiful green, gold and dark brown-edged series of hexagon patterns on his underbelly, something like Escher would have drawn. The colors were hypnotic, until I saw a gash and a big splash of red came out -- turtle blood! Ugh!

The poor thing. Someone must have hit him. And now here I was transporting him in mid-air and making him flail about. I put him in a safe, cool, shady place near the water, but I don't know if he'll make it. He did not pop his arms and legs and head out, just looked like a dark green camo rock.