“Six hours later, when my brother-in-law got home from work, he was still squirming around trying to flip himself.”
One of the more interesting labs in one of my neurozoology classes had us drill out the brains of turtles to study their swimming reflex. They’ll go for quite a long time if one is careful with the drill.
On another note, we were out catfishing when one of my buddies hauled up a VERY large snapper on his set line. It was so angry that even after the line was cut, it would move towards us, not the river. I’d believe the self-defense ploy if it was a snapper.
Yeah, they don't give up the ghost very easily. But I forgot about the happy ending to my story.
The day after this happened, my sister used the turtle to make up a big batch of some of the best snapping turtle soup ever.