Texas woman helps 33 turtles find new home after their pond dries up

As Texas grapples with record-breaking temperatures and heat waves, with Austin recording 105-plus temperatures for more than 10 days, life has become hard for all its residents. The smallest ones included.

Sasha Bulkley, a resident of Cedar Park, a suburb about 16 miles northwest of Austin, was biking in her neighborhood when she saw a couple of turtles trying to cross the street.

Concerned by the situation, she called her husband to come pick her in their SUV so she could load her bike and help the turtles.

“I drove the turtles to the Brushy Creek Lake Park across from my neighborhood, about a mile and a half away” Bulkley told USA TODAY.

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The next day, as she was headed to a pilates class, she saw two more turtles on the road.

“I stopped and realized there were many turtles spread across the sidewalk and in the grass making their way to the street. I had been keeping an eye on the pond because the water was getting concerningly low,” said Bulkley.

The Cedar Park resident said that the container she used to transport the first three turtles was still in her car, so she stopped and picked up 18 turtles to take to the lake and release them.

She then back to check if there were more turtles and found a couple of more to relocate.

“I checked the area by the pond every morning until the water dried out. In total, I was able to save 33 turtles within those last few days of the pond drying out,” said Bulkley.