It's the weekend

Typically enough, I said to hubby at 4 p.m., sirens ought to be firing in the next hour. Sure enough. Sirens and then the OPP helicopter.
There was an accident this morning, too

BRACEBRIDGE OPP INVESTIGATES SERIOUS INJURY ACCIDENT

– On September 4, 2009 at approximately 8:05 AM. Bracebridge OPP responded to a three vehicle collision on #11 Highway northbound.

Investigation into the accident revealed that when the collision occurred the area was experiencing reduced visibility owing to dense fog. When traffic slowed for the fog, a chain reaction occurred with lead vehicle being struck by the vehicle behind who was in turn struck from behind by a third.

Two involved drivers and two passengers were transported to the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital in Bracebridge by ambulance. A 15 year old passenger was then transported to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto for treatment of potentially life threatening injuries. Investigation is continuing.

There is much bad news in the media:

Seal drags five-year-old BC girl into water‎ -

-- A five-year-old West Vancouver girl is traumatized but OK after being dragged into the water by a seal Tuesday night.

They say she had been feeding the seals. They jumped up, grabbed her thinking she had food. Now, hubby says its a good thing we don't feed our fish, the snapping turtles and the tourists. I had been shuffling around in the water, raking and cleaning up the shoreline, when I looked under the dock crib. I found a little friend. What was he doing? Looking for dinner, methinks. My minnows like our dock to hide from the heron. This turtle was nothing near the size of the other snapper(see the sidebar!), but its shell was the size of a dinner plate and can do some damage. And the neck! You have to check the video 60 sec. in!

Snapping Turtles locate prey with their "especially keen sense of smell. " It appears to me that they find human predators this way, too!
They are wickedly fierce. They'll bite a large fish off of a line in the water. They'll take off your fingers, for sure! If you Google snapping turtle attack, you'll see!

Common Snapping Turtle

They have a keen sense of smell but limited vision. Snapping Turtles are shy of humans and prefer to move away when approached. (Editor's note, except for my big stud who remained motionless throughout my paddle and my video!)

They crane their necks, sticking their noses out of the water, which must be sharp, up above the water to breathe, but I think he was looking around for the two-legged ones, we are their worst predators. He smelled me (I hadn't had my swim yet!) and retreated, blowing bubbles.