Hercules Ate a Turkey

One summer, we were going to spend several days at a cabin in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico. A dear friend of ours was willing to house sit for us and take care of our menagerie. We left with our crew and drove the 9 hours to the cabin. What a gorgeous setting! We were right beside a roaring river and only a stone's throw from two trout ponds. Even though it was the middle of summer, we had to wear jackets in the evenings and early mornings. Idyllic is the perfect adjective.

Things were going well for us. Unfortunately, our faithful house-sitter was in the middle of a crisis!
At that time, we had some turkeys as part of our crazy critter collection. And yes, they are as dumb as people say. We started with six, but that number soon dwindled. One evening before we went to bed, all the turkeys were fine. The next morning one of them was lying in the pen dead with not a mark on it. We had no idea what had happened until Kregg picked it up by the feet. Water poured out of its mouth. Conclusion?  It had rained a little during the night and the turkey had DROWNED.

Kregg was burning a pile of trash one day out in the back. He threw an empty turkey feed bag on the fire and one of the turkeys ran into the fire to get the bag!! We tried to shoo it out, but it just stood there! After finally dragging it out, its poor feet were burned and some feathers singed, but we thought it might be okay. For the next two days however, it just stood there in shock ,we guessed. We kept expecting it to drop over dead, but it just kept standing there. Then, remarkably, it snapped out of it. From that point forward, that particular turkey was always a little odder than the others. It actually thought it was a dog! It would come up to us and rub up against our legs wanting us to pet its head. We named him Tom. We could stand on the back porch and cry, "Gobble, gobble, gobble."  Tom would answer us right back. Every time! 

We had them enclosed in a chain link pen. Being rookie turkey farmers, we thought that would be sufficient. At night, they would roost on the top rail of their pen and then settle back down inside their pen each morning. But one morning during our trip, one of the turkeys came down on the outside of the pen into the backyard.

Now Hercules, our gigantic Alaskan Malamute, was a perfect gentleman around our pets. He never offered to hurt any of them. Goats, sheep, and turkeys, however, were not pets. They were prey.

Our house-sitting friend kept Hercules in the house because it was so hot outside. When she needed to leave, she would put him in his kennel and he would patiently await her return. The morning of our story, she let him outside for a little while before she left for work. She had no idea there was a turkey running around the backyard. Calling him back in, she kenneled him and left for the day. 
When she arrived home from work and opened the door, she just about lost it! The aroma emanating from the house was toxic. Searching for the source it soon became apparent it was coming from Hercules' kennel. Poor Hercules had thought turkey would be a tasty treat for breakfast. His insides couldn't have disagreed more strongly. And he was covered in results. Our poor friend faithfully cleaned up the mess. Can you imagine?  I really don't want to.

She called us that afternoon, and bless her heart, was apologizing for letting it happen!! I didn't even know what to say. I tried to reassure her that the loss of the turkey was in no way, shape, or form, her fault and was not a big deal at all. She just kept apologizing. We were horrified that our animals had created such a catastophic mess for her, and there was no way we could fix it or help her! We did bring her a nice present as a way to tell her "thank you" for all her hard work!  It in no way compensated her for the trauma she had endured!! We just didn't have enough money to buy a present that nice!  It would have needed to be a new car or house or something!

We no longer have turkeys and have no plans of owning any in the future!