Woman falls in love with neighbor's dinner turkey
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00:00 My next door neighbors decided to start raising their own food and unfortunately that meant for
00:05 them also raising meat birds. Because I'm a rescuer, I just closed my window so I couldn't
00:11 hear them and just tried to stay out of it. A few weeks went by and they emailed me to say
00:16 they needed some help. One of their turkeys was not doing well and so I went over there to take
00:20 a look and this little tiny turkey, they had I think six of them then, she just was getting
00:24 picked on by the other ones. My hunch is that she couldn't see to start with. They asked me
00:29 if I would take her and they didn't have to ask me twice. I'm Tiffany and this is Lemon's story
00:35 for GeoBeats. Come here turkey. So Lemon came to me in May of 2020. She was the Lemon model,
00:41 you know when they say a car isn't a very good car, that's how she got her name. Not to you goofy.
00:45 She's my special little mostly blind turkey.
00:48 You're close. She was in a lot of pain when she came and I honestly wasn't sure she would survive
00:55 and it was a tough time to find veterinary help but I was lucky enough to find an eye specialist.
01:00 There's that turkey. There she is. Once she was feeling better she just became this adorable
01:06 sweetheart. What are you a rabbit? Good lord where are you going? Eyes. Careful. She was so
01:13 willing to trust after all that she had been through in her first few weeks.
01:16 She would vocalize little chirps to let me know that she wanted to have interaction.
01:23 Do you want any more or are you having enough? I really worked with her on my voice and sounds
01:31 and a routine. Can you hear it? Come towards the sound. Yeah you're so close. So she knew where
01:38 food was and how she could get to it and interestingly she's over three years old now
01:42 and she still has that same food dish because she understands what it sounds like. How can you
01:47 balance yourself as a blind turkey? She navigates pretty well by I think mostly sound.
01:52 Look out. Lemon is I think partially because of her blindness she's very sensitive and turkeys
02:01 in general can be very emotionally sensitive. They seem to almost get their feelings hurt and so they
02:06 get their feathers ruffled up if they feel like you've offended them. She loves her fellow birdie
02:10 friends. Hi. Oh you're very floofy this morning and she reacts to my voice. That's pretty super floofy.
02:17 If I'm farther away she'll do a really loud chirp like are you there and if I respond then she'll
02:22 start to get excited and talk more until I come. She's very sleek and streamlined
02:26 and then when she sees me she'll also just huffle up just this round shape and do a couple circles
02:33 almost like she's showing off trying to impress me. I tend to talk to them in their language
02:37 instead of in my language English. I figure if she is chirping at me she wants me to chirp back.
02:42 You're my little snuggle. She would get cranky when she's molting. Oh vicious.
02:49 So I try to wear kind of long sleeves in aviary when she's going through one of her moods and
02:57 complaining to me about it. She's good at picking up on the sounds of wild birds. There's a ton of
03:01 sparrows in my yard and when they go silent she knows there might be a hawk above or an eagle so
03:06 she'll follow the lead of the ducks. If they head back to the aviary for safety she'll run that way
03:11 too. She can see some shapes and some stuff. She loves to eat tomatoes. Something between her eyes
03:15 and her brains tells her it's higher than it is so when I feed her I have to put it here
03:19 and then she'll reach for it up here and I have to quickly put it there before she adjusts.
03:24 I'm careful not to anthropomorphize animals with human emotions because I think their own
03:30 turkey emotions are just equally important. Her snoot and waddles and kind of her fleshy head
03:39 can change colors all the way from a bright red to a bright blue. If she's calm and happy it'll go
03:44 bright blue. If she's trying to get a point across and she needs to be aggressive about it her whole
03:49 head will go bright red. Angry with me? Why are you so angry? She's got her own unique scent. A
03:53 little bit of a dusty smell. I'm a little bit allergic to animals even though I rescue them a
03:58 lot so I try not to take a super close smell of her too often. Yes it's your block of ice. Lemon
04:04 is a little over three years old now and I haven't been gone more than two days in that time because
04:09 of her but I do notice when I am gone that she's super excited so I try not to be gone more than
04:14 a meal or two for her. Oh my goodness. She really has a special place in my heart. She is a smart turkey who
04:22 has figured out this world when she just didn't quite get dealt the best hand to start with.
04:26 I'm listening though. I love hearing from your eyeballs. I appreciate that.
04:31 (turkey gobbling)
04:33 (turkey gobbling)
04:34 (music)