Henrietta

I have talked of our turkey Wilbur before. Now I have to give Henrietta her due. Henrietta came into our lives about the same time as Wilbur. She was a white domesticated turkey. I usually like the brown ones the best (they look like turkeys should look!) but Henrietta had great personality and you found it hard not to like her. She lived in the same pen with Wilbur and another white turkey Esmeralda and led a quiet and calm life. That is until our neighbor’s dog came into the picture. He had a taste for turkey that he couldn’t satisfy and made many attempts on our poor turkey’s lives. Esmeralda took care of him in the end but that is another story. One day after a loud commotion outside I ran out to check on them and Henrietta was gone. I figured the dog had finally won his battle. I drove down to our neighbors but he was no where in sight. Life went on without Henrietta. Now I had always been told how dumb turkeys were. I had heard stories of how they would drown themselves in heavy rains, etc. Henrietta was soon to prove this was all myth. It had to have been about a week later when I came home from work to find Henrietta sitting on our front porch. I didn’t even know it was her at first. She was covered in mud and no longer white. She had obviously been through a lot but was not harmed in any way. I could only assume that she had flown from the pen and been lost for the duration. How she found her way home I will never know and what is most amazing is that she let her presence be known by waiting for me at the front door. Henrietta went on to live a long (in turkey years) and fruitful life with us. Since that time with all our turkey friends I have been fascinated with anything turkey. When I saw this turkey fabric I knew I had to make a quilt out of it! We no longer have turkeys but Indiana now has quite a few wild turkeys and I am able to enjoy them every so often. Last week while running one of the kids to school there was a Tom and two hens just past our house, he was in full strut all fanned out. A gorgeous site to see and a safe one, turkey season had just closed the previous weekend!