(l-r) Max, Lenny, Little Girl
It started when she spent the day with her cousin Lenny and his older brother, Max, on the Island, a small land mass with cottage, 2 decks, fire pit, outdoor furniture and trees, all sitting in the middle of Lake Webster. Lenny is a crazy little brown and white Boston Terrier. He and his brindle colored brother, their human parents, me and Joe and Little Girl, our 2-year-old rescue dog of dubious parentage, headed out to the Island to help get it opened for the summer.
No sooner had we deboarded when Lenny began to run around following his nose, unearthing and devouring turtle eggs, one after another. Soon Girl caught on and she too was chomping down eggs as fast as she could, swallowing them in one gulp as she evaded my attempts to stop her. The Island is great for dogs. No leash or fence to hold them in. Just a large wild area to explore and run around. The two younger canines were in a feeding frenzy, obsessed with this amazing delicacy just below the surface. They could not be stopped. Girl acted like she just had her first taste of crack cocaine and she could not get enough. Max had no interest in gorging himself on turtle embryos. He just enjoyed lounging around in the grass, soaking up the sun and breeze coming off the water. I wished my dog took his lead.
At first I had no idea what the dogs were doing as they both tugged on the ragged remnants of what looked to be a piece of white plastic. When I finally got it from them, I realized it was not plastic, but something organic, leathery and slimy. Jackie said it was the shell of a turtle egg. Their prize gone, no problem. Lenny and Girl wasted no time finding another and another and another. I lost all control. Someone said the dogs might get sick if the eggs were spoiled. But I worried about their impact on the future turtle population of Lake Webster. According to the DNR (Indiania Department of Natural Recourses) it is against the law to disturb or harm the water reptile’s nest as well as the honking pooping geese who frequent the Island.
The dogs never stopped. But I gave up. We left a few hours later and both canines were exhausted and totally satiated on the boat ride home. I just worried about what was going to happen when Girl came down from her bad trip. Would she go through withdrawal from the overload of raw egg protein?
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