Turkey Day

My grandpa is a man of 80 some years who grew up in a very rural area in Montana with 13 brothers and sisters. Times were often very difficult. Despite the difficult times, my grandfather had the time to make friends, with turkeys.

Living on a farm in rural Montana, meant that you were fairly self-sufficient. My great-grandparents raised turkeys for special occasions like thanksgiving and Christmas, meaning the birds were around the property the rest of the year. My grandpa has always been one to like animals, but in a way that is different from most. He tends to show that he likes animals by teasing them, something my own father has inherited. When my grandpa would come home from school, he would tease a particular turkey. He would run after it, and grab it to make it stretch out it's long neck. When the turkey would see my grandpa, it would do its best to fly forcefully toward him with its claws ("turkeys have large talons") ready to grip its prey. This became tradition whenever the turkey saw him.

The turkey and my grandfather continued to build their relationship in this fashion, but time came when the turkey became ill with a turkey disease called blackhead. Apparently, turkeys did not typically live through this. My grandpa realized that the turkey was sick, put him in a box with straw and put him behind the old cooking stove inside the house. He gave the turkey some food, but it still wouldn't eat. Eventually, grandpa carried on the relationship with the turkey in spite of sickness. He began teasing the turkey stretching out its neck and pretending to eat is food. Low and behold, the turkey ruffled his feathers, started to flight back, and ate the food that was placed in front of him. The turkey lived! My grandfathers quirky relationship with a turkey saved its life and it lived happily ever after.