Why the Snapping Turtle? ...and what's it mean?

The snapping turtle is the official logo of SoloCanoes.com. Why? Like a solo canoe, the snapping turtle is a hard shell that moves through the water in solitude. While you will see other turtles like sliders and painted congregating in groups like a bunch of plastic kayaks, the snapper typically prefers to be away from all the noise and commotion. It's more at home in the peaceful surroundings of a backwater marsh and prefers navigating and exploring quiet streams and waters alone... Ha, ha. Good one. Okay, the real reason and story...

My wife and I met because of a snapping turtle. My kids (first marriage) had a pet snapping turtle they raised from an egg that was dug up by some hungry critter. After hatching, he lived in a 300 gallon terrarium with a water fall, moss covered rocks, and a pond. Doesn't everyone have one of those in their living room? That snapper was a member of the family and he steadily grew and lived in our home with us for a few years before being released into the wild.

Fast forward twenty plus years...
I had been divorced for about ten years. A coworker pestered me into putting an ad in the then new AOL on line personals. I actually did it as a joke thinking nothing would come of it.
I entered all the usual stuff along with a photo and said I was looking for someone that liked to canoe and camp... with a request to include a picture because I thought attraction was important for a long term relationship.
I hit the enter key and walked away....

About a day and a half later I booted the computer to check my email. I had mail... a lot of mail. There were over seventy replies to my ad...
I started sorting through them glancing at them one after another and to save time, deleting those that didn't send the photo I had requested. I was about two thirds of the way through and getting pretty tired. I had my finger on the delete key for another reply with no picture when something in the text caught my eye. I saw the words "Snapping Turtle", which is not something you would expect to see in a reply to a personal ad.
Having caught my attention, I read the reply...

She told about her four kids, her two dogs, camping, kayaking and canoeing, and if that was not enough of a zoo, they also had a pet snapping turtle...
That was enough for me and I sent her a reply even though it didn't have a picture. A year later were married and to this day we have the snapping turtles to thank for it. It was the only email I ever replied to...

By the way, she's beautiful, a wonderful person, and I'm a lucky guy.

Steve Johnson

You'll see the turtle used to signify something I want to highlight and eventually I'll be using them as ratings for reviews.