Turkey on a stick

So I have the turkey baby with the broken leg. Pragmatic Jeanine uses common sense in these situations - plus the fact that I absolutely cannot stand to see an animal suffer under any circumstance.

I take the tiny baby and go out of sight of the poultry area to 'do the deed'. The baby is so vigorous and a little feisty. It is not the least bit lethargic or stressed, more like pissed off or irritated in some way. One tiny but firm claw grips my finger and the little wings flap angrily.

“Don’t do it” my heart says. “Get it over with” says my head. I can't do it. Something unfamiliar tugs at me and for the first time in my life, I can't do it. "Tomorrow" I say to myself and I put the baby down in the shade sandwiched in-between shallow trays of water and food.

Tomorrow is today, I didn't get home until 3:30a.m., barely got 6 hours of sleep and now only a short break until time to go back to work again. But these are excuses - I cannot excuse myself for letting an animal suffer and die a slow death of pain and starvation or dehydration - so I go out to get the baby.

Did you know that a bird can hop around on one leg? Kind of like a pogo stick? Pogo (he/she has now been named) is hopping all over the place. It stumbles a bit in the tall grass but is right back up again with dogged determination and scrambling around along with the other babies. My husband moves the baby to a place in the shade and puts down a piece of watermelon next to it. The baby makes a fussy irritated noise and hops off pogo style, trips and falls, and gets up again to pogo through the grass to keep up with the others.

I am in awe of the fighting spirit; the spirit that won't lay down and cry, but instead grabs at life's ragged edges and enjoys and savors the little bits just as much, or more, than those of us who have the whole big piece.

So you go dude, or dudette! There must have been a reason that I couldn't 'do the deed' and I think I want to keep your feisty spirit around for a while. There may be more that you want to teach me.