Turkey Day
I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. My whole family will be together this year, and we have a recent engagement to celebrate. Woo-hoo!
Per our family tradition, we have "adopted" nine turkeys this year. Their pictures will adorn our table and remind us of the beauty and inherent value of these beings. Our meal will be a combination of catering from the Chicago Diner and wonderful, plant-based cooking from our own kitchen.
Let me introduce you to five of our turkeys. They reside at Uplands Peak Farm Sanctuary in Freedom, Indiana. Like us, they are each so different in appearance and personality.
This is Lily. She has a big, boss-lady personality. She is super independent, but enjoys affection on her terms. She gets her day started by checking all her favorite snack spots - the cherry tree, the pear tree and the acorn tree.
Here's Taffy's new friend Willow. Willow is the youngest of the flock and is just starting to feel safe in her new home. She's still a little shy with humans (past trauma) but enjoys chatting it up with Taffy!
Here's Taffy's new friend Willow. Willow is the youngest of the flock and is just starting to feel safe in her new home. She's still a little shy with humans (past trauma) but enjoys chatting it up with Taffy!
Meet Felix. Felix loves to show off just how handsome he is and has the best high-step moves! He is quite studly if I do say so myself. He and Oscar are best buds.
This is the eldest of the bunch, Oscar. He spends his day hanging with Felix. Sometimes he's the in-charge guy. Sometimes he lets young Felix take the lead. But he is always first to the snacks!
Aren't they all gorgeous? These five get to grow up free and live out their lives in a sanctuary with other rescued farmed animals. The fate of 260 million others is pretty horrendous and it's something we should all learn about.
On my first trip to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York many years ago, I was most surprised by the friendliness of the turkeys. Of all the rescued farm animals I encountered there, the turkeys were surprisingly the most like pups - curious and playful, seeking human interaction. My daughter Madeline and I went to the Farm Sanctuary in Orland, California years after that and once again, we were enthralled with the turkeys. A young lady named Pamela crawled up into Madeline's lap and nestled herself there for a very long time, just like my new puppy does.
Madeline and Pamela
Every being is an intricate part of God's creation, created with a purpose unto themselves. As we enter Thanksgiving week, I invite you to look at all of God's creatures in a new light, see their beauty, and recognize that just like us, they want to move freely and live out their full lives with the ones they care about. That was the original God idea described in Genesis 1.
Happy Thanksgiving.
© carol saunders 2021
