It was turtle dog week down here in TN!!!! Not only was it great to see the turtle dogs do what they do best but I was able to see my friends from school. Dr. Allender and two of my classmates and turtle team leaders, John and Marta came down as well. It was so much fun be able to share turtle team and my snake project with each other. I joined turtle team Monday through Thursday and John and Marta joined me for snakes in the afternoons. It was a long and tiring week but so much fun!

John is not a morning person… Workin hard or hardly workin?

Dr. Allender, John, Marta, Kelsey and myself in the midst of working up our turtles in the field!

I don’t have as much experience with turtles as I do with snakes so John taught me how to draw blood and Marta taught me how to take heart rate using ultrasound. I enjoyed learning from my classmates and having this experience with them. I also really enjoyed bringing John and Marta out with my screw crew full of amazing high school and college students. I loved showing them what I’ve been doing all summer (saving the world one snake at a time). The students also really enjoyed them being here. I haven’t told John and Marta this yet, but they have told me that they really liked those two and miss them being down here! The students really got a chance to bond with John and Marta because they came out for turtle team and for snakes! It doesn’t surprise me that my classmates made such a good impression on my students turned friends down here because they are pretty awesome people.

spending some quality time with my classmates after enjoying their last day at the lake!

Kelsey Waterson, senior college student at University of TN also participated in turtle week and did snakes with me later. What is fun about Kelsey coming out with us is that she went up to Illinois last summer to work with Dr. Allender and participate in turtle team. It really was like one big reunion! Kelsey didn’t write a blog last summer so we decided to make a short video blog of Kelsey talking about her experience last summer in Illinois working with turtles and this summer in TN working with snakes.

The video has a VERY famous special guest: Oliver Byrd the CRESO cat.