Farewell Pecker

If you can remember my birthday last year - which I'm sure you all do - my brother Austin gave me a couple of turkey chicks. Unfortunately, one died but my favorite one stuck around - Pecker. He was big, friendly, and always happy to see me *snicker, snicker*. Oh, and he always pecked the flesh off my knuckles when I got too close...

Anyway, Pecker was to become our Thanksgiving dinner but of course I fell in love with him and couldn't go through with killing him.

At this point I would like to state that aside from the obvious reasons, I really don't make a great farmer. I love my animals too much and can't see them for anything other than pets. Therefore, death & selling don't even cross my mind

So, with nothing better to do with him, my dad and brother Andy thought that we should clip his wings and turn him out to pasture and of course I thought, why not? Clipping his wings probably wasn't necessary because the ol' boy was bigger than we realized. Dad could hardly lift him...

Once out to pasture Pecker was as happy as could be. He would strut around us in circles and gobble on cue. The picture below is him coming right onto my lap and shaking his tail feathers.

Pecker seemed to like everyone that came to visit him. That is of course, everyone but Ryan. The second Ryan came near Pecker would fluff up and charge after him. It would seem he had a bit of infatuation with me and didn't like the husband stepping in.

Well, as the title to this post states, we eventually did say farewell to Mr. Pecker-Ecker. However, this was NOT planned.

While walking out to the barn on morning to feed the goats, I noticed that Pecker was laying down in the field. Totally uncommon for him since he usually calls to me the second I step out the door. I hopped the fence and realized that he was gone. Something had torn out his back-half and ate his innards.

Between cussing and crying I determined that a coyote had gotten into the field and got my poor boy.

At this point, I don't even know what else to say about it. There he was, my buddy, laid out.

Like any reasonable woman my mind quickly sought revenge. I made a call to my trusty buddy, Farmer John, and he told me that he'd get some boys over with traps.

And while we didn't catch any coyotes, we caught something else - which is a hell of a story.

To be continued...

RIP Mr. Pecker-Ecker