'HBC' No More

The article I read was 'HBC' No More by Victoria C. Marmelstein. The article came from REPTILES Magazine of April 2008. I chose this article because I was looking around in the magazine and saw a picture of an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina Carolina) and it looked interesting to me, so I read the article that followed. The article was about Victoria Marmelstein finding a beasutiful eastern box turtle cowering against the six-lane raod's curb. She was going to carry him across but noticed that the right side of his head was bloody, and the eye was flattened. She took him home and tried to take care of it so that it would recover. She named the turtle 'HBC', short for 'hit by car'. The turtle showed no interest in food, so she assist-fed him, and eventually turned her backyard sandbox into the perfect turtle enclosure. After a few months of not moving, Victoria heard the turtle chewing some cooked chicken she left in front of him. Since then the turtle has eaten from her fingers upon smelling the food. She renamed him Padfoot and he hibernates in a soil-filled box in her basement, walking around like a healthy turtle in the summer. I liked this article because it showers there are still kind and helpful people out there. This article proves that with some care, you can help hurt animals beat the odds. Victoria found the turtle when it was blind and bloody on the street, and she still took it home to feed it and nourish it back to health. The turtle would go for weeks without moving, yet she still fed it and washed it. Another thing I like about this article is that most people wouldn't take time out of their day to take care of an injured turtle they found on the street, but Victoria is one of the few that cares. Reading this article, I learned a couple things. I learned with care and determination, an animal thats severely injured can survive. While most animals rely on sight and smell to find food, they can survive on smell with a little help, Padfoot now swivels his head seachingly as if sniffing his way along. I also learned that eastern box turtle are common in northern Virginia. Although I do have one question, if Padfoot was hit by a car and found bloody and with one blind eye, how could it have possibly survived a hit by a car?
I could not find any pictures of the eastern box turtle from Victoria Marmelstein online, but the picture above and below are pictures of Eastern Box Turtles that look similar to 'Padfoot'.

(http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/turtles/pics/tercar5.jpg)