Turkey Trampoline and Quill-adorned Dog

I intended to write about the weekend's Devonwood Dressage Show where I spent the last 3 days...

But this morning my less-than-brilliant idea to move the turkeys backfired and that story takes precedence. Plus poor Shirley Puppy's ordeal.

First, the turkeys. I wanted their pen freed up for the banty and her baby peafowl, the only egg that hatched from the murdered peahen's nest. So I moved the four turkey hens and their three babies in with the chickens. The peacock had been so enamored of the baby turkeys that I thought all would get along. (The peacock flies in and out of the uncovered chicken yard.) As usual, I was wrong.

The peacock followed the turkey chicks all around the chicken pen. One mama turkey decided that was too close and attacked him. Bad idea. Peacock does not like being attacked. He counterattacked. She fled... upward and over the fence onto the netting covering the adjacent garden.

I must say that netting is stronger than I thought. As the turkey tried to fly up out of it, feet, naturally, entangled, the netting went with her. She went down, up, down, and netting did likewise. I rushed into the garden and got under her. She waded her way away from me... up, down, up, to the edge of the garden. With one mighty heave, she launched herself up and out of the netting, tearing it as she went, and landed in the linden tree in front of the chicken house.

The tear was close enough to the edge I could rehook the netting over the nails. The turkey hen eventually flew out of the tree and down into the llama field where we were able to herd her to the chicken house area. She entangled herself in the many stems of the date tree/bush and I was able to grab and disentangle her and return her to the original turkey pen.

All the turkeys are now back where they started. The banty hen and baby peafowl are in a quickly constructed sort-of pen in the corner of the garden where the mangled apple tree is.

But before Johnny could start on his quickly devised banty pen, he discovered another problem... Shirley Puppy had an unfortunate encounter with a porcupine during the night. So we spent half an hour pulling quills out of her nose. Well, he pulled, I held Shirley. Poor girl.

I am now two hours late starting chores. And no, I did not get photos of poor Shirley quilled or of the turkey trampoline act.

At least all this excitement did not happen on one of the mornings I needed to leave here early for the horse show.