We had one ‘rest’ day (Sunday, March 11) with no adventures. Then Kelly, one of our mentors, decided the girls needed a field trip to the emergency room. She sacrificed her lower leg and ankle to this educational opportunity.

Two SLAC-kers were with Kelly when she twisted her ankle walking a puppy to its first vet visit. That ‘twist’ resulted in a dislocated fibula and tibia and four breaks in both bones. If we add that all up, we get a dislocated ankle and EIGHT breaks. Kelly was a model of how to handle an emergency situation perfectly—she gave the girls jobs: “Call (neighbor) and have her come help us. You’re in charge of my purse, be careful with it because it has my drivers license and insurance and I’ll need that at the hospital. Get the crutches out of the back closet; I’ll need them later.”

In turn, the girls were on top of things too. Kenedy confirmed she didn’t need to call 911 and both girls helped secure the puppy in a kennel in the garage to avoid any more damage or a runaway dog.

Surgery patched her leg back together with eleven screws and a plate. We have pictures of the x-rays, but SLAC-kers are better at looking at animal bones than human bones so we won’t post them here.
This was the first day of Spring Break. The original plan included taking the pupper to the vet and then catching up with Viviana to help with another turtle survey. By 8 am we were working on Plan B.

The girls would’ve been happy to stay with Kelly at the hospital, but Viviana knew they needed a good distraction, so they spent the day with her at the Trinity River Turtle Survey.
This was an excellent opportunity for the girls to use what they learned from Viviana and Andrew at the recent Spring Lake Turtle Survey. They handled more big turtles with adult supervision, and they did a great job.

Not all turtles are as big as baby dinosaurs, but we still have to use caution when handling the smaller ones.

Later, the girls made cards and signs for Kelly.

Then, several days later, they were so happy to help spring her from the hospital. It was a crazy week, but the SLAC-kers did what SLAC-kers always do: they helped, they learned, and they got stuff done.