2-headed turtle's name is just right

A two-headed loggerhead turtle hatchling released to the ocean at Kiawah Island last week didn't leave without a twin name — "Hope and Faith."

It was named by 9-year-old Grace McKeehan, who found it struggling futilely in the sand. The turtle was one of three left in its nest, the first hatchlings ever encountered by Grace, who had accompanied her mom, Chris McKeehan, with the island turtle patrol, for the first time.

"She wasn't horrified. She was worried about how it was going to make it," Chris McKeehan said. Wildlife biologists release deformed turtles with the healthy because most hatchlings end up eaten in the ocean.

The thinking is, if this one ends up as food, maybe a healthier turtle survives. The McKeehans and another volunteer took the turtle down to the tide wash.

"At first he wasn't doing too well. After awhile he was able to lift both his heads and flap his flippers at the same time." Grace said.

As they nursed it along, the turtle struggled through the shallow surf.

"We left her swimming and breathing in chest deep water, but she got there on her own," Chris McKeehan said. Grace thinks he will make it, two heads and all.

"I have hope and faith in him," she said.