I think that I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge outdoorsy type of person. I like being outdoors, but not hiking in the woods or camping. I don't like the wild "animals" that come with the great outdoors! For those who have known me awhile also know that the "wild" always seems to hunt me down! I've had encounters with bats, racoons, skunks, & turkeys. My theory is that if I wanted to be with the wild, I'd go pitch a tent, simply being out in my backyard does not give the "wild" right to come find me!
So... as we were enjoying our beach time on Monday we got a call from my neighbor alerting us that there was an injured wild turkey making our backyard it's home! Great! She also said that at night it flew up to to tree but each day since Saturday, spent the entire day in the yard! Great... just what I need to deal with when I get home!
As soon as I got home on Tuesday morning, I started the endless phone calls to try to figure out how to remove this turkey. After a few hours of getting the run around, I was hopeful that animal control would be out. By noon, animal control was in my driveway but I quickly determined that animal control may not necessarily be the answer to my worries!
I was greated by an older man who didn't look too certain about what to do. He took a look inside the fence and said, "This is going to be a tough bird to catch!". So he returned to his van to get the necessary equipment! I turn around to see his high tech equipment that he is going to use to catch this turkey and found him carrying a fishing net - not even a large one - at best, medium sized! I thought, this is going to be a long afternoon! Then he turns to me and says, "I'm going to need your help." My help! Are you kidding me, why do you think I called you! I'm pretty sure that all of those things came out, in fact, I think that he thought I was some sort of lunatic! He then tells me that I don't have to touch it or anything and that the turkey is actually more afraid of me than I am of it! Apparently he doesn't know me and like I would even think of touching the turkey! I just kept thinking... this is not really happening.... I'm really not trying to catch a turkey! So this older man starts to move in on the turkey and wants me to go the other way to make the turkey think that it doesn't have a way out. Lo and behold, he gets this dumb bird into our back corner of our yard and whoosh, the net goes over the bird and it's caught. Now what!? He's got the turkey in this net pinned to the ground, now what's the plan. I asked politely if he'd like me to get one of his cages out of the car for him. Without answer, he begins to try to flip the net over and grab the turkey with his hands (did I mention that he didn't even have gloves on?! GROSS!!!!). Dumb move! In a blink of an eye, the turkey basically released it's feathers and took off in the air! Did you ever see a turkey fly? Kind of looks like a small plane. It flew clear across our backyard, across my neighbors yard and into the next yard which is surrounded by a 6 foot fence which the poor bird did not clear and smacked it's leg into. I'm thinking that things don't look too good at this point. So we go over to this other yard and there it is. In the meantime, I suggest to my neighbor who is watching the whole thing to go get Jason (the guy across the street who works from home) because I'm not getting any more involved in this capture than I already am and this animal control guy needs help. So... the animal control guy backs the turkey into a corner behind a wood pile and nets him once again. Again, I offer to bring the cage closer to him - this time he takes my offer! As I begin to give him the cage he begins to lift the net off the turkey. I promptly give him instructions to put that net down and don't move until I'm further away! I also suggested that perhaps he wait for Jason to arrive. Jason comes and the turkey is put into a little cage. Whew! Turkey captured and was now it it's way to a wildlife rescue nearby.
Later in the afternoon, I called the wildlife rescue to see how the turkey was doing and they told me it had a very bad leg fracture (bone was sticking out) and that it had to be put down. Poor turkey but at least it's not in our yard and I can once again put the dog outback!
In all the chaos, I still managed to take some pictures. My neighbor said, too bad we don't have a camera! I said I do... and whipped out my camera. I think the animal control guy thought that perhaps I needed some help! Who takes pictures of this? Hey! I have a blog and am always looking for good material! :o)
So... as we were enjoying our beach time on Monday we got a call from my neighbor alerting us that there was an injured wild turkey making our backyard it's home! Great! She also said that at night it flew up to to tree but each day since Saturday, spent the entire day in the yard! Great... just what I need to deal with when I get home!
As soon as I got home on Tuesday morning, I started the endless phone calls to try to figure out how to remove this turkey. After a few hours of getting the run around, I was hopeful that animal control would be out. By noon, animal control was in my driveway but I quickly determined that animal control may not necessarily be the answer to my worries!
I was greated by an older man who didn't look too certain about what to do. He took a look inside the fence and said, "This is going to be a tough bird to catch!". So he returned to his van to get the necessary equipment! I turn around to see his high tech equipment that he is going to use to catch this turkey and found him carrying a fishing net - not even a large one - at best, medium sized! I thought, this is going to be a long afternoon! Then he turns to me and says, "I'm going to need your help." My help! Are you kidding me, why do you think I called you! I'm pretty sure that all of those things came out, in fact, I think that he thought I was some sort of lunatic! He then tells me that I don't have to touch it or anything and that the turkey is actually more afraid of me than I am of it! Apparently he doesn't know me and like I would even think of touching the turkey! I just kept thinking... this is not really happening.... I'm really not trying to catch a turkey! So this older man starts to move in on the turkey and wants me to go the other way to make the turkey think that it doesn't have a way out. Lo and behold, he gets this dumb bird into our back corner of our yard and whoosh, the net goes over the bird and it's caught. Now what!? He's got the turkey in this net pinned to the ground, now what's the plan. I asked politely if he'd like me to get one of his cages out of the car for him. Without answer, he begins to try to flip the net over and grab the turkey with his hands (did I mention that he didn't even have gloves on?! GROSS!!!!). Dumb move! In a blink of an eye, the turkey basically released it's feathers and took off in the air! Did you ever see a turkey fly? Kind of looks like a small plane. It flew clear across our backyard, across my neighbors yard and into the next yard which is surrounded by a 6 foot fence which the poor bird did not clear and smacked it's leg into. I'm thinking that things don't look too good at this point. So we go over to this other yard and there it is. In the meantime, I suggest to my neighbor who is watching the whole thing to go get Jason (the guy across the street who works from home) because I'm not getting any more involved in this capture than I already am and this animal control guy needs help. So... the animal control guy backs the turkey into a corner behind a wood pile and nets him once again. Again, I offer to bring the cage closer to him - this time he takes my offer! As I begin to give him the cage he begins to lift the net off the turkey. I promptly give him instructions to put that net down and don't move until I'm further away! I also suggested that perhaps he wait for Jason to arrive. Jason comes and the turkey is put into a little cage. Whew! Turkey captured and was now it it's way to a wildlife rescue nearby.
Later in the afternoon, I called the wildlife rescue to see how the turkey was doing and they told me it had a very bad leg fracture (bone was sticking out) and that it had to be put down. Poor turkey but at least it's not in our yard and I can once again put the dog outback!
In all the chaos, I still managed to take some pictures. My neighbor said, too bad we don't have a camera! I said I do... and whipped out my camera. I think the animal control guy thought that perhaps I needed some help! Who takes pictures of this? Hey! I have a blog and am always looking for good material! :o)
This is our poor injured wild turkey! You can see his right leg hanging.
The animal control guy with his net, closing in on the turkey!
Jason saves the day and carries the turkey out of the yard!
1 comment:
Totally hilarious!!!!! What an adventurous day, and a great blog story! :)
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