Some of our family's best stories are about rescuing animals, including a baby deer that was being chased by dogs in Wisconsin and our two cats, which were abandoned in our alley in Chicago. This is the story of how I rescued a big turtle when I was seven years old.
One evening as it was getting dark my mom and I were walking back to our car after soccer practice. We were parked near Lincoln Park Zoo. On our way we saw a crowd of joggers that were looking at something. It was a huge turtle, the kind you only see in a zoo. The turtle was trying to cross Fullerton Avenue, a busy four lane street. It was almost dark and the joggers were tired of standing there preventing the turtle from crossing the road. He would be a dead duck if he went into that road, especially at rush hour. The joggers finally went on their way. My mom and I stayed because we didn't want the turtle to get run over. It was almost dark. The zoo was closed. We didn't know what to do.
Finally I got an idea. I picked up the turtle, which was not easy because it was so big. I told my mom we should put him in our car. Mom thought I was crazy. I told her my plan and then she agreed with me. We brought the turtle to the car and I poured my water bottle over it so it would stay wet. Then we drove to the front gates of the zoo, which were locked up. I got out of the car with the turtle and ran to the gates. I started shouting “Help! Help!” and banging on the front gates. A bewildered security guard came out of a building to see what the commotion was. I told him that I had found a turtle trying to cross Fullerton and I thought it was the zoo's. He unlocked the gates and paged the zookeepers that were on call that night. They thanked me a lot for finding the turtle and bringing it back to the zoo. Then we went home with an exciting story to tell.
It turns out that the zoo was draining the ponds in the zoo wetlands area, called the Rookery, and when they do that sometimes animals escape. My mom said that I was a hero. I will always remember when I saved that huge turtle.
