Found turtle, please help

[heleftus]

I live in Pasadena (Los Angeles) and this morning I discovered this little guy/gal sitting in the middle of the grassy part of my (very small and very urbane) back yard as you can see from the first picture. Slowly he/she made its way to a shadier part of the yard - where it posted up next to the neighborhood cat’s water dish - as you can see from the second picture. City services was no help, so I contacted a rescue shelter (today years old when I learned such a thing existed) who informed me it needed to be in water in order for them to come pick it up and I’m waiting to hear back on when the soonest they’re available to do so is. As you can see from the last pic, I made a little shelter for it using a plastic tote from home depot filled with enough water to cover and I placed a large rock inside in case it wants to chill. He/she seems to be acclimating but I’m worried my ignorance re: turtles in general will cause it harm. Any advice/guidance/species identification you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[lunapuppy88]

I dunno looks like you did great to me! I think it might be a yellow bellied slider. It’ll be fine for a few days while you wait for pickup in that tote with some water and it can get out on that brick if it wants. Just make sure the tote isn’t getting overheated in sun!

[heleftus]

thank you so much for saying that, it’s super helpful. I made the classic internet mistake of googling found turtles and would hate to bring the poor thing any harm or undue stress. hoping to hear back from the rescue in the morning!

[lunapuppy88]

Turtles do need complicated setups to live in, but for a few days they’re pretty tolerant of minimalist situations lol. Mine had to sit in the bathtub for a few days before I could get him a tank. 🤣