Watercolor of Shasta, our giant pet brown turkey. Left and right views of him. A orange pumpkin is in the middle, off tune musical notes are floating all around the picture- he loved to sing turkey tunes.
He
had three girlfriend hens, but had to be separated from them as he outweighed them three times over.
A regular Romeo of the barnyard he was!
The girls were separated by a wire fence in the pens, so he was right besides them. He was known to make love to his food dish as a replacement for his hens.
The thing about Shasta, was that he was a temperamental Tom; there really is a condition Tom turkeys get called that. We were clued in on his odd behavior by local farmers.
The toms will just drop and lay there lifeless; it could be a day or up or over three days. A type of depression - he was very sensitive. They get stressed out and have to recover.
When this happened, we would cover his head with a light cloth and he would get up when relaxed enough.
Health issues, injuries were ruled out.
It was interesting finding older farmers who had delt with this in the past. His nutrition was on point- no breathing problems, no leg injuries, etc.
And why would he get so wound up? It was the Romeo he was!
In addition to being a stud, he loved classical music! We would drive up the long drive up the mountainside, windows open on the truck, playing classical ( it had to be classical) music. He would put his head up, start strutting, and sing his version of the music; that’s why the music in painting is not correct- it’s turkey music.
Long story short, he lived a good life and on a super hot summer day, dropped for the last time while making hot love to his food bowl after singing his heart out to some good music when we pulled up the drive. A classical way to go.
FYI- we weighed him, over 80 pounds! Not overweight, he was the biggest turkey we had ever seen.
Sure miss that guy.
Left pose is him hearing the music playing- right pose, all worked up, strutting and singing.
Shasta
The classically trained tom turkey.
Shasta was the Tom turkey we had while living in the little cabin on the mountainside. Alt
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