"Most of the painted turtles of Mud Pond, who had been inaccessible as they sunned on their rocks, wound up in boxes in boys' closets within a matter of days."

This makes me angry. The once 'happy' turtles will never be able to sun themselves again. Turtles need water. They can die if they are left alone and in the darkness of a box that is in a suffocating environment of a closet. Animals have to be appreciated, not tormented.

"...she breathes the way we breathe..."

I think the author is trying to say that animals are alive and have the same right to live as we do, because no matter how different our physical appearances may be, we are all more or less the same.

"They were aquatic turtles, but here they went without water, presumably for weeks, lurching about in those dry bins like handicapped citizens, living on gumption."

There is a note of sympathy in this sentence. The words 'lurching' and 'handicapped' create a clear picture of the plight of the captured turtles.

"Somehow there were so many of them I didn't rescue one."

He doesn?t use the word ?buy?, instead he uses the word ?rescue? because he knows that the turtles are in danger of dying. Why would an 'animal lover' not attempt to save an animal in danger? Even if he was young, couldn?t he have reported ?animal cruelty? in the shop where he saw the turtles?

"...they were creeping over one another gimpily..."

The word ?gimpily? is a funny word, but describes the turtles? movements well. I have never seen the word ?gimpily? before and I like it.

"...burdened as they are with that box on their backs..."

Turtles have so much weight holding them down when they are not in the water. Their very protection leads to their death. If not for their shells, no one would want them as pets, nor would they be killed.

"Its like a nightmare most of us have whimpered through, where we are weighted down disastrously while trying to flee..."

The author is saying is that turtles have to hide and run when on land in order to stay alive, but they have the weight of a shell holding them down.
A turtle become almost weightless when in the water.
In other words, people should leave turtles alone, let them live a dream, not a nightmare.

"I carried him, struggling in a paper bag, across town to the Morton Street Pier in Hudson?.I think he was afraid?.the waves were too rough for hi?.I recognized that I must have done the wrong thing."

Why did the author, an animal lover, throw the turtle to its death? Why didn?t he even attempt to save the animal? He could have found a net or something and tried to catch it further downstream. He had intended to do the right thing and free the turtle, but didn?t think about the river and how large and rough it was. I think he?s pointing out that when people are angry or frustrated with the behavior of their pets, they just get rid of them so that they don?t have to tolerate them anymore. People shouldn?t get pets if they are not devoted to keeping the pets alive, healthy and happy.

"But since, short of diving in after him, there was nothing I could do, I walked away."

If I did anything like that to an animal, I?d feel guilty for a long time. I remember when I killed a moth?s cocoon by accident, I felt guilty for weeks. I wonder if Hoagland felt any pangs of guilt. He knew what he did was not the right thing to do, but he doesn?t mention feeling guilty.