I am not talking about pets.

I'm thinking of wild animals we fleetingly crossed paths with and never saw again.

Let me give you an example. About 30 years ago, my wife-to-be and I were driving south on a sleepy state highway in upstate New York near the Vermont line. It was daytime and there was no traffic that I can remember.

We came upon a huge turtle, hunkered down in the middle of the road. We could have gone around. But maybe we got to thinking about that amused-by-roadkill truck driver who gives Tom Joad a ride in "The Grapes of Wrath."

So we stopped and I got out with a big soft-bound road atlas. I tapped the turtle on the back of its shell and it scurried (yes, scurried) off the road and down into marshy area. Perhaps I woke it up.

That atlas was henceforth known as "The turtle mover."

Turtles live a long time, right? Maybe that animal is still roaming the Northeast. I'd like to think so.

Then there's the black bear we observed back around 1990 in Jasper park up in Canada. He or she was up on its rear legs, leaning back against a tree and wriggling. We were pretty sure it was scratching its back.

What ever happened to that bear?

Now that I think about it, I guess I could draw up a fairly long list of memorable animals -- from desert reptiles to Browne's Addition magpies. I'm sure you could, too.

Something tells me they don't remember us. Perhaps that is as it should be.

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