“Chase come down here, we need to show you something” my dad said gently. My parents led me to the basement and out the back door. My heart sank as I saw one of the most horrible sights of my life. Almost two dozen turtles were spread across the green grass of my yard. The turtles were so mangled that all that remained were pieces of their shells scattered on the ground. All of this happened because of one little mistake.
“What happened!” I said to myself. “What did this?” I said with remorse. My dad said it was probably a raccoon. I was only in the first grade, but I couldn’t help but hate myself after this tragedy. Earlier that month I thought it would be fun to catch the turtles in the lake, and then turn them into my pets. I had them in very large storage bins on my back patio. This setup gave them plenty of room to swim around, and eat the food I gave them daily. They were in the shade and seemed to have the good life as my pets, but this quickly turned into a terrible disaster. There were only a few lucky turtles that were able to hide from the monster that attacked them. I immediately decided to release them back into the lake.
I soon decided to forgive myself for what happened, and I knew that I would never make that mistake again. I still caught turtles the rest of the summer but after playing with them for awhile I let them go. All I had to do was think of the broken mangled shells in the yard, and that ended the idea of bringing a new pet home that day. This is one mistake, I decided, that I would never make again.