On Monday, May 4th, a strange call came in to start off our day at Happy Trails.  "There is a domestic turkey sitting on my patio," said the concerned caller. "He showed up about a day and a half ago and won't leave. I'm afraid the stray dogs in the neighborhood might kill him."

Unfortunately we are trained to be skeptical. Was this just another call from a pet owner wanting to conveniently dump their pet?  Operating on an all-volunteer staff who use their own vehicles, Happy Trails doesn't have anyone available immediately to go out and assess a situation nor do we own a truck for hauling. Since in many cases, humane officer's bring the injured or abandoned animals to us, we tried to figure out how to help.

"Could the turkey belong to your neighbors?" I asked.  "No, our neighbors definitely do not own turkeys," was the reply.

Hhhmmm..... A call to the humane officer of the Portage Animal Protective League resulted in getting help, and together we went out to assess the situation. We drove into a beautiful housing development.

The caller and his neighbor stood by and pointed out the feathered intruder. The home owner was not joking — not only was it clearly obviously that no neighbor in that area would have a place to keep a turkey, but the handsome bird was right where he said it was, standing on his pristine patio admiring himself greatly in the shiney, sliding glass door.  Jennifer Sanderson, the humane officer, and myself, had to giggle as we approached the comical scene. The gobbling creature seemed so out of place in the immaculate housing development, and what are the chances that he would make himself quite at home where he so very much stood out like...well, like a big turkey in a beautiful housing development.   Jen and I decided that this was a weird way to start out our Monday.

"You can walk right up to him," said Bill, the home owner. And I did, The turkey was not frightened of people in the least, and he reached out to bite my hand. He was a very heavy bird, strutting around very proud to show off all his beautifully colored feathers. We immediately determined that we needed to remove the farm animal from this neighborhood. "Let's go get the crate."  As we walked back down across the bright green and perfectly cut grass, we heard the neighbor say, "I have to see this!"  We giggled again.

So back we went with the cage, and not wanting to scare our new feathered friend, set it carefully down as close to him as what we thought was neccessary. As I once again approached the bird, he decided that I looked like a breakfast snack, and latched his sharp beak onto the back of my hand. He decided to smack me at the same time with one of his massive wings. I could hear Jen, who was making sure to stand a safe distance away, laughing. Great. I thought I had better stop at this point to explain to the folks watching that I was about to dive on the turkey and pick him up like a football, but I assured them that the turkey would not be hurt. They looked at me, I think still amazed that I had even planned to pick up the beast.

But all went well. With a little dodging around the sharp beak, I managed to to grab his head safely with one hand and scoop him up in my other arm. I deposited him safely in the crate in a matter of seconds. He was not a happy camper. He made noises that sounded like he was called us everything except for Jen or Annette. With our bird in hand, we headed down the hill.

"Hey, name him Bill after him," the neighbor called out, as he pointed to the home owner who discovered the bird.  We try to give the rescued animals unique names, so Bill turned into "Wild Bill Hitchcock".

It ends up that "Wild Bill" is truly a tame and hand-raised turkey, after consulting with the good folks at the Division Of Wildlife just to make sure. Wild Bill is happy for the moment to be hanging out with four domestic geese at the sanctuary.

However, a rooster in the same barn tried to intimidate Wild Bill as soon as he arrived. Wild Bill didn't want to fight. He did the bare minimum just to keep the rooster at bay. The rooster wouldn't give up. Finally Wild Bill had enough. He took one massive claw and held the rooster on the ground, and then sat on him. Jen and I witnessed the drama. Phooey. Now I had to go in and dig the rooster out from under Wild Bill without getting bit again. But Wild Bill seemed happy that I was removing his annoyance, and he did not attempt to bite me as I picked up the frightened rooster. Into a cage went the rooster for right now.

So, Wild Bill is available for adoption. He does have a possible home pending, but just incase things don't work out and you would like to provide a safe and loving home for a quite handsome pet turkey, let us know — 330-296-5914.

It just goes to show ya — you never know what Monday mornings will bring! And thanks to the Portage APL for helping transport Wild Bill to safety!