MeXscape

The first turtle encounter happened two days before hurricane Lane hit Mazatlan. I was walking myself, my dog and my dog’s friend, along a beach known as Playa Bruja; the shaman. This is a section of sand rarely seen by tourists, in summer on foot; most are on 4 wheelers and horses. From a ways off, I noticed a small squiggly thing at the waters edge and went to investigate. I found a baby sea turtle making its terrestrial journey across the hot summer sand to the edge of the sea. I watched as a wave washed ashore and spread it’s long, foamy sheet of water and engulfed the tiny creature and carried it into an uncertain future. While I watched this little guy disappear into the froth, I suddenly realized if there is one turtle, there should be more. I back tracked the turtle’s trail into the dry sandy part of the beach and found 9 more turtles floundering at the bottom of deep horse tracks. The tracks had well defined escarpments that had captured the small turtles like a Burmese Tiger trap. After ferrying these turtles to the edge of the surf, I went back to look for more.

When I found the nest, it looked like a large sand funnel, with 3 turtles trying to climb to the top without much success. I took these 3 to the crawl and swim part of the beach and went back to the nest. As I started to examine the sand around the nest, I realized that the sand in and around the nest was very compacted ( 4 wheelers and horses).

I started to carefully remove the surface sand from around the nest to create a larger area to safely allow the contents of the nest to escape freely. The remaining horde of turtles were milling around below an area of compacted sand. When I reached the main nest area, there were 59 little turtles waiting to make the run from hot sand to safe surf.

While Snickers and her friend Shadow sat and watched, I began to cart the turtles, 3 and 4 at a time, to their obvious launching area and then set them in the sand. I did not want to put them directly into the ocean, because they needed to crawl some distance before hitting the waves; helps to get their flippers working. At the time, this seemed to be the logical and natural progression of all things turtle. Right about now several of Ginger’s bi-lingual horses, with passengers, had arrived to watch the process. During the entire time the horses were there, I heard none of them converse in either Spanish of English. I think they are shy around strangers.

About 20 minutes into this turtle mission, a pack of 3 wild and hungry dogs spotted what looked like easy food at the edge of the water. I didn’t see the dogs until Snickers the Wonder Dog stood up, bristled and growled. By this time the lead dog was about 30 feet from a turtle dinner and closing fast. I immediately said “Snickers, go get ‘em.” Snickers, being very quick, bright and trained to that particular command, bolted for the pack. The minute Snickers charged, Shadow exploded out of the sand, passed Snickers and center punched the lead dog with blinding speed and force. I have clocked Snickers at about 38 MPH on a flat out run and she looked slow when the wild hound passed her. It all happened so incredibly fast; it was difficult for me to believe what I had just seen.

Shadow showed up in the RV park about a month ago, very wild, starved and full of fear. Since there are so many stray and wild dogs in the area north of town, I have trained Snickers to chase any and all dogs out of the RV park. When I first spotted this emaciated apparition I naturally spoke the words to my Wonder Dog, “Go get ‘em.” Normally the strays will run way before Snickers ever gets close and the majority are fairly small dogs. Shadow, very large for a Mexican wild dog, stood his ground and I suddenly realized I might have just sent Snickers into something that could have a big vet bill attached to it. I couldn’t close the 100 yards in time to stop what ever was about to transpire…so, I thought to my self “it’s about 2pm, there’s probably a vet open for the next few hours.” Just about then both dogs were nose to nose and stood stone still for about 20 seconds, then the tails started wagging, heads started bobbing and various orifices were being inspected; great, no vet bill.

They then started to play, like puppies normally do, with mutual chasing and bouncing. At that point, I thought, what could it hurt, Snickers is a long way from home and needs a friend. So, I would put out a paper plate with a little dog food each day and Snickers’ playmate would suddenly appear and play for about an hour a day and then vanish. After about 3 weeks of feeding, Shadow would come within 50 feet or so and run if I tried to approach him. About 2 days before the turtle hatch, I put out the plate of food and stood about 10 feet away. It took about 30 minutes before the dog would approach the plate. When I got a good look, Shadow looked a lot like a greyhound. And now that I have seen his speed, I am sure he is mostly likely an older, abused and rejected race dog. Some of the Mexicans can be so cruel to their animals and this dog had never had a hand laid on him in kindness. After the standoff at the dinner plate, Shadow started to follow Snickers and I on our many walks and bike rides; hence the name Shadow. So, it was this mostly wild Greyhound that plowed into the pack of 3 dogs that wanted turtle for dinner.

After Shadow nailed the lead dog, he turned and went for number 2, which had just planted all fours and was beginning to back pedal. Snickers, always a creature of opportunity, went after the last and smallest member of the pack. Within about 8 seconds it was over. It was then that Shadow came up to me, for the first time and checked me out, up and down, and went back to his spot in the sand and lay down. I thought to my self, “damn what I am I going to do with another dog?”

By this time, dogs and turtles had generated a small crowd at the turtle rescue hole. 4 folks on horse back, 3 on 4 wheelers and 3 on foot. At this point I enlisted the help of 2 little girls, about 8 and 10, to carry the hatchlings to the wet sand. The girl’s mom got a lot of pictures of their encounter to show all the folks back in Ohio. 30 minutes later all the turtles had made it from nest to ocean, with a little help from their friends.

The night and day of the hurricane, Shadow took up residence under my aluminum box and thought himself to be home. He has a very sweet personality and became very protective of both Snickers and myself.

The day after the storm, I was again walking the beach with the dogs and Snickers the Wonder Dog stopped to check something out. I really did not pay attention; she does that type of thing all the time. After 100 yards or so, I looked back and she was sitting and looking at me with the “where are you going” look. When I clapped my hands and told her to come, all I got was Shadow; he very quickly picked up the commands I would give to Snickers. So I went back to see what had anchored Snickers to the spot. When I got there I looked around and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just before admonishing Snickers reluctant behavior, I noticed a little piece of bright white in the sand at her feet. I carefully removed some sand and found a turtle egg. After moving more sand I realized it was a turtle nest that had been almost washed away by the storm surge. It dawned on me then, that Snickers had remembered the turtle rescue and was now tuned into turtles and their eggs.

I contacted Martha, who contacted the government sanctioned turtle rescue people and they told us that the eggs were not viable and wouldn’t hatch. This was without even looking at the eggs or asking how they were found or if they had been damaged. I then realized they really didn’t care that much about the plight of the sea turtles, it was simply a job. So, I replanted the eggs in a safe spot, located their new nest with my GPS instrument and will check in once and a while.

My next quest was to find a good home for Shadow; project number two. I knew that his imposing size, combined with his rather orange eyes and fearsome appearance would make this a difficult task indeed. I did not want him to end up on the end of a chain as a junkyard dog. I called Martha, a good person with a good heart and maybe she could help. I knew she was connected with the animal people and asked if she might be able to find a good home for Shadow. Well, needless to say, Shadow has turned out to be a really great dog and will follow Martha anywhere and everywhere. And since he never acquired a taste for cats (the other white meat) he is even allowed in the house.