Grace Hopper came to the Sanctuary via the Mill Pond in Brighton on Saturday, 10/11/14 at about 10 weeks of age.  She had lost her leg early in her young life (most likely a snapper turtle) but by no means does she allow that to  dampen her spirit.  She scurries along without hesitation to get where she wants to go, especially to the food!  Once she arrived here, she was introduced to Angelena (please check our Facebook page to read her story), and they bonded instantly, probably knowing that they were both very special creatures.  Since she was put out a few weeks ago, she has always flown up to the garage door every night as the sun lowered, in her desire to get a good resting spot in the straw filled garage, along with all of her new siblings.  Every morning that I open the garage door from my office window above, I wait and watch her exit the garage in flight, on a ninety degree path right into the main pond.  There she spends the day until the eventual lowering of the sun once more.  However, tonight she broke from the routine for the first time, and as I donned my waders and tried effortlessly to coax her back toward the garage, she would have NOTHING to do with it.  I guess nature is finally overriding my wishes and overprotective tendencies. but, tomorrow is a new day!

Her name is Grace. Since she’s a “hopper,” Doug Peterson (see his blog @ words4it.com) named her after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, an extraordinary woman who not only served in the US Navy until she was almost 80 but also was instrumental in developing the first machine-independent programming language compiler. She’s also credited as the originator of the term “debugging” when a moth caused glitches in a 1947 computer.