Slow but steady wins the race...ha! Right!

Old Aesop was usually spot on with all the morals in his stories.  He wrote a lot of fables with neat little sayings that could be used as a guide in everyday living.  So many times now, you hear folks quote something from these fables in reference to something that has occurred or as a warning of something that just might happen.  For years now, I have been hearing one particular saying over and over again.  "Slow but steady wins the race!"  I know that this means that I should take things one step at a time and not rush headlong into any project.  I definitely should take the time to "do things right the first time."  My question is..."Why in the world did Old Aesop choose a turtle to bring about this point.  In his fable, he pitted a tortoise against a hare.  Now before we get started with my rant...a tortoise is a turtle just not the other way around..a turtle is not a tortoise.  A tortoise is just a land-based turtle.  The word turtle is sort of a generalization term covering the whole nine yards of these reptiles.  Turtles..generally stay in water but can go on land...tortoises generally stay on land but can go in water...then there are terrapins...oh, geez, now we have strayed away from my story.  Anyway, getting back to where I started.  It seems that Aesop made the mistake of picking a turtle as a slow-moving critter.  The reader is to assume that a fast-running hare (and I could go into spiel about the differences in hares and rabbits but won't!)  would outrun a slow-moving turtle.   By the end of the short story, the rabbit lollygagged around enough that the ever-plodding turtle won the race!

I am here to tell you that there is fallacy in this fable!  Turtles are not slow!!!!  I have encountered perhaps the speediest turtle on the face of the earth!  As usual, this all started on the end of the pier (where else?).  Ms. Ez and I made our trek to the pier to empty the crab traps.  I knew there were a couple of dozen blue crabs just waiting for me to boil!  Before ever getting the first trap up, Ms. Ez stared at me with her big, brown, puppydog eyes and that convinced me to catch her a few minnows for breakfast.  That dog loves her minnows!  Anyway, being the dutiful dog person I am, I tossed the net.  Wow!  I must have a bucketful of minnows!  The net weighed a ton!  I heaved the net up on the pier and stared.  Ms. Ez stared.  That was not a net full of minnows. THAT was a turtle!  Somehow, I caught a turtle in the net and dragged it all the way up on the pier!  Imagine that!  Well...old turtle was just going to have to get out of my net!  I took a few pictures just to prove that I had actually landed a turtle and then tried to remove the critter.  It laid there quite passively.  Since the critter was upside down, I flipped it over and started untangling the netting.  My idea was to free it from the net and then, before shoving it back into the water, take a few more photos.  I mean..just how fast can a turtle move?  I was used to the old snapping turtles that will sit on the pier and stare you down for a good twenty minutes before moving.  I flipped back the netting and before I could even grab the camera, the turtle had raced across the pier and dove into the water!  It was gone!!! No more turtle!!!  That critter could move!  I promise you that it would have given any rabbit a run for its money!!  Old Aesop would have been aghast that his fable was ruined by this speedy turtle!

I am supposing that Aesop had not encountered the Pond Slider.  Pond Sliders are extremely fast turtles! These are usually found in ponds (hence the name) so I have no clue as to why this one is hanging around the pier.  Most folks only get a quick glimpse of them as they slide off of logs into the water.  This is their defense..they speedily dive for the safety of the water.  This was apparently a very young Slider as it still had its bright yellow and green stripes.  With age, these stripes will darken to a murky blackish green.  I hope my Slider learned a very important lesson by being caught in the net!  Stay away from people!!!  Next time you may not be so fortunate as to be released!  Head back into the Bayou!  There you only have to worry about the alligators..uh oh!   Slow but steady may have won the race for the tortoise but sheer speed got this turtle out of trouble!