By Irma Hamill
First and foremost I would like the WCA Newsletter to be a venue where I can express my deep gratitude to all the friends and neighbours in Snug Harbour who sponsored me in the Franklin Challenge, thanks to the efforts of Bruce and Joy Davidson. Between the sponsors the Davidsons and I gathered, my total contribution to the Outer Islands Project was $1000! I believe that was about a tenth of the money raised and there were well over 100 participants.
I first met Toughy the day of the Franklin Challenge when I was in my kayak, holding onto Gilly’s dock near my property line.
He kept coming up to my kayak and we did our initial greeting and began our friendship.
The second time I met him, he took a fish, complete with stringer, that I had briefly tied to my rowing skiff when I ran to the house for a knife to dispatch my catch. Clearly Toughy liked the taste and began showing up regularly at the beach.
I would feed him entrails, head and skin from the bass I was catching.But we got to know each other over the summer and on the day one photo was taken, I cautiously risked scratching his neck. There are two snappers of almost equal size in the Harbour. This one appears to have been hit by a propeller as his mouth and part of his shell have been damaged. Thus the name Toughy. The second snapper I do not feed and I once broke up a brawl between it and Toughy by smacking it with a canoe paddle. They separated immediately. Apparently they are territorial.
I give permission for the photo of me petting Toughy to be used hoping that it doesn’t encourage folks to pet snapping turtles without cultivating a connection first. It took months before I felt we knew each other well enough. The whole process has been totally rewarding and I kept going back to the internet to learn more about turtles, whether they bonded, what they liked, how they hibernate, etc. One of the joys of living where I do is having the opportunity to connect with the natural world more deeply. I am so very grateful.