About Turkeys and Motivation
With the amount of work that needed doing when I was growing up, we needed a maid. Even two would have found enough to do. We changed them often. My mother was…picky; and prone to anger. The record was four in four days. A friend of mine came over every day for this period and saw four different maids. He couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know the name of the last one.
At times like this, my mum would flip into the “You boys are spoilt and need to learn how to work” mode and refuse to employ any extra hand. This was complete nonsense. We didn’t need to learn how to work. We already knew how. A reminder wasn’t necessary either. Sadly, my mum disagreed. Sadly, my mum was in charge. Mutiny was not an option. Her word was law. Thus, we suffered this injustice numerous times when I was a teenager. We once lasted two months with no maid. It sucked beyond anything I can describe. The work was bad enough; but the real issue was that someone always had to be at home. We hardly ever left the house empty, for security reasons. That meant my evening drive about town became a luxury. I loved that drive. I needed that drive.
My little brother was usually home; but, being a weirdo, he always locked himself in his room. This was no good when you needed someone to answer the gate. At least he worked. He fed the chickens. I hated doing that more than anything else; and he did it without moaning. I always thought he felt a kinship with them; stuck in those cages, laying eggs for ungrateful masters who would butcher and eat you when you couldn’t do the laying anymore. I have mentioned he was strange.
It was in one of these cases that I saw first hand what could happen when one’s back is pushed against the wall. There was no maid. The poultry was at full capacity and we had an extremely vicious dog to contend with. I had to remember to buy chicken feed, because they wouldn’t lay eggs if they hadn’t eaten properly. We sold some of the eggs that were laid. My mother would be ticked off if there weren’t enough eggs, especially if it was my fault. Needless to say, I made sure they were fed.
The turkeys were a different matter. All they did was stuff their faces and stroll around leisurely. I think I just envied them. At any rate, the alpha male type character was quite antagonistic. He thought he was a king. No, really. I nicknamed him Big Poppa because of this fact. He led the entire troupe around like they were gods or something. He even attacked me a couple of times. They didn’t serve any purpose at that stage. Yes, I knew they would make for a tasty meal somewhere down the line, but in the meantime they were a pain. So, I forgot to buy their feed. I was going to, but I kept putting it off. So, it ran out. The turkeys were starving. It so happened that someone made some beans that didn’t turn out so good at that time. I thought it might be an idea to feed this to the turkeys, so I did. They ignored it. I thought, fine…you’re obviously not really hungry. Cruel, perhaps; but I was still nursing a bruise on my leg where Big Poppa had drop-kicked me. I felt justified.
I wandered outside later on and, lo and behold, the bean cocktail was gone; all of it; and all the dirt around where it had been put. So I didn’t bother buying feed that day either. The next day, I put the dog’s meal out for it. Rex (the dog) was so aggressive that I couldn’t go near him while he was dining. He would actually try to attack me. He forgot that I was the boss, and that sometime later on that day we would play tag, a game which I would let him win. The point was that he had to be restrained. You put out the food and took cover before he went into mad mode. Well, on this day, after the food was put out, Big Poppa arrived on the scene with his henchmen. They were scared silly by that dog. There had been one or two incidents when Rex had managed to get free when the turkeys were out for their daily stroll. It never killed any, but there was still chaos.
Imagine how this leader felt; his family was starving; there was food right there, within reach. The only problem was the vile creature with sharp teeth that laid claim to the grub. Something had to be done. No guts, no glory. It happened fast. All fourteen turkeys made their move at the same time. Rex never stood a chance. At first he tried to grab one with his teeth (ever the nice guy, he didn’t want to kill it, just to hold on to it and scare it off or something). The bird flapped its wings so hard that the he was dazed. I tried to help, but the crazy dog lunged at me in its food-fuelled madness. He was playing nice to the turkeys but thought nothing of ripping me to bits. I left him to his fate. It was over in about ten seconds. They each pecked at the dish about twice each, or something like that. All the food was gone. Then they took off…into the sunset, as it were. That marked a major change in their relationship with Rex. I might be wrong, but I believe in my heart that all further attempts he made to free himself were solely so he could have another one-on-one with Big Poppa and the rest of the crew. Thankfully for them, he never succeeded.
The turkeys explored this change in diet further over the next week. The next day, I noticed them moving with the same single-mindedness that they had when they attacked Rex’s food. It was a monitor lizard; a poor un-suspecting monitor lizard. These reptiles exist in large quantities around where I lived. They had no reason to expect to be attacked by turkeys; cats, maybe, but definitely not turkeys. It had never happened before. It was fundamentally wrong; unnatural even. Nevertheless, a couple of pecks later and he was gone. We didn’t have a lizard problem for months. Only the cats did a better job. The turkeys also tried corn-on-the-cob and some authentic African cuisine, including stewed chicken, before it was over. I eventually bought the feed, and things went back to normal. They kept attacking the lizards though. I guess they tasted good.
I learnt a valuable lesson from this. All it takes is motivation, and you can do anything.
