So a turkey walks into a yard
September 18, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
It was Ben Maier, 7, who first found the turkey sitting in the back of his family’s brown Ford pick-up truck the morning of Sept. 10.
“My son ran up and woke me up and told there was a bald eagle in our truck,” Heather Maier recalled. “Sure enough, there was a great big bird.”
The roving black and white turkey became a source of amusement, concern and wonder for the Maiers, who live on the south side of Southeast 4th Street.
John and Michele Miller, neighbors of the Maiers, poured birdfeed on her back porch and bunched up the remains of a fallen planter for the turkey to eat. He would wander over, plucking food from the ground and examining his own reflection in the Millers’ ground windows.
When Heather Maier checked with neighbors, nobody claimed the turkey.
“We have no clue how you’re supposed to take care of a turkey,” Heather Maier said at the time. “We just want him to find his home.”
And he did.
Brian and Diane Leavitt, who live around the corner from the Maiers, came by the morning of Sept. 20 to say the turkey was back in his coop.
Brian Leavitt said the turkey, a Naragansett, goes by the name Mr. Snood and is about 8 months old.
Leavitt said a German shepard ran onto his property Sept. 15, killing several of his chickens and breaking open the turkey coop.
“We saw feathers everywhere,” Leavitt said. “I thought it was likely that he (Mr. Snood) was dead.”
Leavitt noted that off-leash dogs are a major problem in the neighborhood — dogs have killed 17 of his chickens in the last year.
joan burlingame, a code enforcement officer with the city of Sammamish, said the turkey wasn’t likely to live long without some protection, especially with coyotes lurking.
She added that residents complain about livestock invading their property about a handful times each year. The most typical livestock complaint is about roosters crowing in the spring, she said.
In spite of the potential pitfalls, the turkey survived.
“We were so glad,” Heather Maier said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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