Mystery solved...

For the last two summers something has been wreaking havoc on our water plants, chewing up the waterlily flowers even before they open up to bloom and eating chunks from the nice green lily pads. At first we thought it was Jybow, Jimmy's cat, because we caught her pawing at one of the blooms, but now we know better.
Jimmy even got his finger bumped, as if something was trying to bite him, by some strange thing in the water, so this explained to us why the cats were no longer drinking from the pool. They were reluctant to stick their tongues down in the water to lap up water for fear of "the thing" beneath the water surface. Jimmy at first thought it might be a water snake, so he quit pulling up the dead plants and clipping them off. And I sure wasn't going to tempt fate and get bitten by some unknown creature from the black lagoon.

Time went by and we would notice the plants wiggle around as if something was bumping them from beneath the water. It remained a mystery until today when Jimmy passed by while mowing and thought he saw something. He got off the mower, but left it running so the thing in the water wouldn't hear him approach. He saw it and he came inside to tell me...

I was on the computer, of course, and he told me that he had spotted the head of a very tiny turtle about two inches in size in the water garden and this was what was eating the water plants and its size explained why it never bit Jimmy...it was just too small. He said that we could catch it with a small aquarium net. I ran outside to see it and when I got near, I saw the plants move so I knew where it was. Then I saw it...

But it wasn't as small as Jimmy as described it to be. He walked up and asked me if I had found it and I said that I had, but that what I was pointing to was only it's head and neck, and to put away that net and to get something bigger. Well- Jimmy came back with a large plastic Taco Bell soft drink cup and tried to fish it out while I'm saying that the cup is too small. Jimmy made his attempt to get the turtle and the turtle went down deeper and out of sight and so did I. I went inside thinking that this was it for today, cause a scared turtle is not coming back up.

A few minutes later Jimmy came inside and asked me to come out and look in the bucket and there it was. He had caught the turtle scooping it out with the bucket.

It's a little larger than 2 inches...or maybe I should say, a lot larger than 2 inches. Jimmy really wanted to eat it but I convinced him to put it back in the bucket and take it back to the creek and release it. He did and the little turtle loved it's new bigger home and quickly swam under a log.

Now it's just wait and see if things straighten up and the water lilies start to flourish again, or if there are any another turtles in there. Time will tell...