Newbie

As Hannah has gotten older, she is more involved in her teenage social life and high school which means my volunteering with her has lessened in terms of time commitment.  While I will still of course, be her "big sister", it was time to find a new volunteer project since I have some extra time to give.  Thus I finally decided to volunteer with animals.  I have always shied away from the animal scene for a variety of reasons: the prospect of adopting all the animals I am volunteering with!  The heart wrenching stories of abuse.  The nutty people that unfortunately seem to populate a lot of animal rescue.  And so on.  However, I decided it was time to stop making excuses and at least try it.  So I decided to volunteer with Pasado's Safe Haven.  They are very close to where I live and they have the added benefit of having not just dogs and cats but all manner of farm animals.  At some point down the road, I will hopefully have an even bigger farmstead with more farm animals and I figured what better way to learn about proper care and what's involved than by volunteering.  

I went online and filled out the application form.  Me being me, I also felt the urge to peruse the animals that are up for adoption.  And there I found Newbie.  Newbie is a 14 pound black male turkey who was picked on by all the other much bigger turkeys and so took it upon himself to hop the fence and go live with the chickens instead.  I, of course, was instantly in love with him, poor fellow, for being the underdog and being picked on and bullied.  I have always wanted a turkey, don't ask me why, but had read that sometimes it's difficult to integrate turkeys into chicken flocks.  Newbie was the perfect match.  Since he chooses to live with chickens and is very submissive and docile according to his bio, I figured he would fit in perfectly at my place.  The turkey caretaker came out and did a home check and agreed I had plenty of room for Newbie and thought he would fit in well here.  

So yesterday I went for my three and a half hour orientation at Pasado's and then brought Newbie home.  Here he is, in all his turkey glory!

Gobble Gobble!

A close up of his face.  He has so much character.  I just love his snood and caruncles.

I put Newbie in the coop and I wish I had a video of the look on the chickens' faces!  They were horrified by that giant monstrosity!  They ran around clucking and chirping like well, chickens with their heads cut off!  Libby of course, being the head honcho, thought she should take a swing at Newbie in a misplaced attempt to keep her position on the top of the totem pole.  She quickly got the giant turkey smack down.  All Newbie had to do was stretch his wings and gobble at her and she was a goner.  Suitably chastised, they all went into the coop and huddled together on top of the nesting boxes.  It didn't take long for peace to reign and everyone to acknowledge that Newbie is now king of the coop.  The girls can't be that stressed because they continued laying without pause.  In order to help Newbie adjust, I brought him some fish skin from dinner last night, a tasty treat which they all love.  I also hollowed out the big orange pumpkin below.  Chickens love the innards of squash.

 Halloween gourds.

 

Unique pumpkins from Mt. Vernon.

 
I never foresaw the day when I would walk out my back door and say to myself, "Please god don't let the turkey be gobbling or the neighbors are going to complain!"  Newbie gobbles a lot and he gobbles loudly!  Listen:




To my relief, after their heads almost twisted off staring at Newbie, the dogs ignored the incessant gobbling and went back to their bones.  They don't seem too excited about Newbie.  I was afraid with him being as big as he is, they may see him more as a playmate than they do the chickens.  Instead, they went back to being twins while they gnawed on their bones:

I also seem to have acquired a beautiful black feral cat.  The dogs went ballistic chasing this poor kitty out from under my shed and up a tree.  I had to get their leashes and drag them back in so the cat could descend.  I would be quite happy to have a barn cat to keep the rodent population down around the chicken coop so I put some cat food and water out for the new Halloween kitty.  (Which will probably just attract rodents instead...)  He (she?) is very shy and won't let me near.  If I could catch him, he will be going to the vet for shots but so far I haven't caught sight of him again.  The farm continues to grow!

In closing, I would encourage everyone to check out Pasado's Safe Haven and consider making a contribution.  I was enormously impressed with the facilities, the organization, the way the money is spent and the care the animals receive.  Having had a chance to check it out myself, I can vouch for the fact that your money is much needed and well spent.  No doubt it's only a matter of time before I will be contributing more than just time and bringing another critter home!