Killer Turkeys

When I was a little girl, we would go to my grandma and grandpa's house in Virden, New Mexico. They had a neighbor who had a turkey that would roam free through the neighborhood. I was only about 5 or 6 at the time, and I hated going outside! Whenever I or my siblings went outside, this turkey would fluff up all his feathers and take off running after us. We'd run into the house screaming. One day my dad had finally had it with that turkey and told us he'd take care of him. We watched out the window to see exactly how this would be done. A few minutes later, dad was running away from that turkey and jumped into the bed of a pickup truck. The turkey stayed there keeping watch over his prey....

Fast forward about 33 years, I have been training to run the Ragnar Relay, I've been running all over town. We have only one stoplight in town, which is right by a strip mall, and gas station, but on the other corner is a vacant field. Saturday as I was running to the itersection, I turned right and saw two huge turkeys blocking my path. When I was 5, the turkey was as tall as me, now it only came up to my thigh, but it still brought up memories of the past. When the turkeys saw me they fluffed up their feathers, I only had a small gravel path that I could run on, and they were on the gravel. I tried to go around them through clumps of long grass, mud, and other debris. Sure enough, as I was passing the turkeys, the larger of the two started after me. I'm sure I put on a good show to all the cars stopped at the intersection as memories of the killer turkey from my past came back. I had goosebumps that went from the top of my head to my toes, a pit in my stomach, and I watched my whole life pass before my eyes as I resigned myself to my fate. Needless to say, I ran faster than that turkey, and had enough adrenaline pumping through my system to make it the 3 1/2 miles back home in 30 seconds flat.

I tried to find a picture that looked like the turkeys that almost killed me. This picture of my neighbors is all I could find. I know it looks like a cute pet, all fluffy and sweet...but don't let the looks fool you. They are deadly!! (Luckily, the turkey in this picture was eaten for Thanksgiving.) he he he...