A Thing of Beauty...
"A THING of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never. Pass into nothingness; but still will keep..."
~ John Keats (1795-1821)
Today marks a momentous chapter in Doodle's life. For, you see, today Doodle discovered art. It had been a long, cold night. A storm rolled in and brought with it cold rain and thunder. The heat lamp blew inexplicably, and for some crazy reason, Doodle's mom was more concerned about the baby turkeys getting cold than she was about Doodle.
"You have feathers," I might have said.
If Doodle could have responded in English, she probably would have said, "I'M STILL COLD. YOU DON'T LOVE ME. YOU'RE A FAKEY-MOMMY-WANNABE. REAL MOMS CARE." But, Doodle could not respond in English, so all she said was "KEE KEE KEE."
It was late, and it was cold, and I had something of a crisis on my hands. Baby turkeys don't take well at all to cold. They are extremely sensitive to it and often die as a result of being chilled. So, my mom and I had to work fast, and Doodle's cries had to go unheeded.
She sulkily watched as we frantically set up a heating pad, covered the brooder with a blanket, and repeatedly checked the temperature to make sure it was getting high enough, but not too high. Doodle was unconvinced that baby turkeys even cared about the cold as much as she did. THEY certainly weren't crying about it. THEY were cozily tucked skin-to-skin to keep them warm while we panicked.
To top it off, Doodle has been moulting. Her head gets balder and itchier each day. So, you can hardly blame her for sulking.
The following morning found me exhausted out of my brains, but Mom and I had found a way to keep the brooder at an even, warm temperature. At first we set it up with the heating pad in the brooder, but then I panicked again, because the baby turkeys were acting so sleepy and yawning a lot, and I found on Google that heating pads often have teflon-coated wires in them. Though the babies were likely acting sleepy because it was something around 2 AM, and not because of toxicity in the heating pad, I set the heating pad under the brooding box instead of in it. Just in case. Because I am prone to panic. Better safe than sorry. Also set up a tiny lamp aimed at their water dish to keep it warm.
Come the morning, temperature had been maintained, no teflon poisoning had been occurred, and all was well. Except I was hallucinating cats that weren't there running across the floor and Doodle standing on the ceiling... Yeah, I figured I'd best take a nap >.> Thankfully, my sweet little sister woke up about that time and graciously said she would babysit for me for a couple of hours.
As the story goes, my sister decided to entertain herself in the meantime by working on a painting she is making for a loved one. It was only a little while into her project when she realized she wouldn't have enough time to finish it before that loved one returned home. So, desiring to keep the painting a secret until it is finished, she set it aside to work on later. She decided to do a picture of Doodle instead, who looked like she would be fun to draw.
It was when she started painting in the colours that Doodle, ever observant and curious, who had been watching the whole time, began to make a strange noise and pace back an forth. Turns out that it was the total-contentment purr. My sister raised the finished piece up to Doodle to get a better look, and Doodle quieted.
"What do you think?" my sister asked. In a tone of voice perfectly synonymous with any choked-up art lover who had come upon greatness and had then been asked what they thought of it, as if any words could ever describe the pure awe, Doodle happily said, "Churrr.... churr...."
My sister couldn't quite believe that she had actually responded. When I was at last fetched from my nap, they demonstrated Doodle's newfound appreciation for the arts to me. When we raised the painting up, Doodle began at once to purr in total contentment. When we took it away, she squawked and CHIRPH'd her annoyance. So, we've hung the thing up where she can always see it.
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| Fine, I'll just sit over here and sulk... |
The following morning found me exhausted out of my brains, but Mom and I had found a way to keep the brooder at an even, warm temperature. At first we set it up with the heating pad in the brooder, but then I panicked again, because the baby turkeys were acting so sleepy and yawning a lot, and I found on Google that heating pads often have teflon-coated wires in them. Though the babies were likely acting sleepy because it was something around 2 AM, and not because of toxicity in the heating pad, I set the heating pad under the brooding box instead of in it. Just in case. Because I am prone to panic. Better safe than sorry. Also set up a tiny lamp aimed at their water dish to keep it warm.
Come the morning, temperature had been maintained, no teflon poisoning had been occurred, and all was well. Except I was hallucinating cats that weren't there running across the floor and Doodle standing on the ceiling... Yeah, I figured I'd best take a nap >.> Thankfully, my sweet little sister woke up about that time and graciously said she would babysit for me for a couple of hours.
As the story goes, my sister decided to entertain herself in the meantime by working on a painting she is making for a loved one. It was only a little while into her project when she realized she wouldn't have enough time to finish it before that loved one returned home. So, desiring to keep the painting a secret until it is finished, she set it aside to work on later. She decided to do a picture of Doodle instead, who looked like she would be fun to draw.
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| The resulting masterpiece |
It was when she started painting in the colours that Doodle, ever observant and curious, who had been watching the whole time, began to make a strange noise and pace back an forth. Turns out that it was the total-contentment purr. My sister raised the finished piece up to Doodle to get a better look, and Doodle quieted.
 |
| Doodle had discovered art. |
"What do you think?" my sister asked. In a tone of voice perfectly synonymous with any choked-up art lover who had come upon greatness and had then been asked what they thought of it, as if any words could ever describe the pure awe, Doodle happily said, "Churrr.... churr...."
My sister couldn't quite believe that she had actually responded. When I was at last fetched from my nap, they demonstrated Doodle's newfound appreciation for the arts to me. When we raised the painting up, Doodle began at once to purr in total contentment. When we took it away, she squawked and CHIRPH'd her annoyance. So, we've hung the thing up where she can always see it.
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| Colour Me Content |
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