Snappy's Gettin' Big

While draining and refilling the pond today, trying to clarify the water a bit, I found Snappy, our quasi-pet snapping turtle. Kenzie found him back in September '06 and introduced him to our pond. He seems to be quite happy, with plenty of stuff to eat (including the occasional goldfish) in our entropic pond over the the past two years. He has grown quite a bit, as you can see from these pictures. Notice how Kenzie and I both keep our thumbs away from Snappy's mouth. He may be small, but we don't trust him with our fingers too close to his beak. We had one of these guys, much bigger than Snappy, almost take off the nose of a curious puppy a few years ago.