ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — We are celebrating Western New York this Friday with two sisters who recently saved two turtles who could have died crossing the street.
Bubbles and Otis are both snapping turtles, and they're both safe now in the hands of WNY Raptor thanks to two sisters who got to check in on them on Friday and meet the woman who is taking care of them until they can be released back out into the wild.
About a month ago, Gabrielle Turri was driving to work when someone hit a turtle crossing a busy road in Orchard Park.
"She was very still, and I bent over and I said, are you alive? And she lifted her head up and looked at me and I was like, we're getting you help, hang on, just be strong, we're going to save your life," Turri said.
Her sister, Natalie Howes, is well connected in the rescue community and told her to take the turtle, with her shattered shell, to WNY Raptor.
"She's eating a ton. So they eat a lot of gross things. Earth worms. Mice from our raptors and things that we feed," Bernadette Clabeaux, director of WNY Raptor, told 2 On Your Side.
Clabeaux runs WNY Raptor and got Bubbles right to the vet, because her injury was serious.
"Her shell was severely damaged. I think it was three different spots. The vet had to actually do suturing on the skin, close up an area where the lung was exposed, so the selum was kind of open, and then really harness or keep the shell closed to let it heal, and it's healing really nicely," Clabeaux said.
Then, just last week, Howes got a call from one of her neighbors in Derby about another turtle that needed help. His face was full of flies and he had a bad sunburn.
"I'm so happy to see him, and he looks so much better. And the night that we brought him here, I was so grateful because Bernadette had a little eye dropper, and she was dropping the water onto his face, and he was so grateful drinking the water, and his eyes were blinking, and the eggs were washing away, so it was just awesome," Howes said.
Otis joined Bubbles with Clabeaux in Orchard Park, and soon, when they've recovered, they'll be set free at a pond nearby.
"What it's like to see her today?" 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik asked.
"Awesome. She looks amazing. So different. She's beautiful and it's very wonderful to see how healthy she is," Turri said.
The sisters set up a fundraiser to help with vet bills, and they've raised more than $600 so far.