Chloe
Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

From The Gentle Barn

July 2013

Chloe was rescued just before Thanksgiving. Her toes and beak had been cut off, she was black with filth, and had lost all trust in humans.

To our utter amazement it only took us a month for her to climb in our laps and fall asleep. She was a gracious hostess and charmed all with her beautiful black eyes and her fuzzy pink head.

Chloe turkey rescue sanctuary

Because of her abuse, it was difficult for her to walk and she needed special care for the rest of her life. Most turkeys only make it till about two, then their bodies start failing. We were lucky to have Chloe with us for almost four years.

Our favorite story about Chloe is how we would take her to fairs to show people how wonderful turkeys really are as pets. She was used to doing this kind of work and settled down in the shade to take a nap as we set up our table. One time, we were about 100 feet from the stage, and about half an hour after we had been there the band started playing.

Chloe ran over to the stage as fast as she could, planted herself in front of the musicians, and began swaying back and forth. We ushered her back to our booth explaining that we had to stay with our things. The minute we turned away she ran back to the stage again. We tried keeping her at our table about three times when we finally gave up and joined her in front of the band.

There was our beautiful, magical turkey, front row center, among all the people dancing. Her body was swaying to the music, her eyes half closed in a blissful trance. She stayed like that until the concert was over, at which point she walked herself back to our booth and started doing her job charming passer byers. The wisdom, beauty, and intelligence of these wonderful animals never cease to amaze us.

When Chloe made her transition, we sang to her as she left her body, and as we whispered goodbye to her, with tears streaming down our faces, at the loss of such a good friend, a bright perfect rainbow appeared and it was not raining!

Thank you Chloe for bringing so much music into our lives and for teaching us forgiveness.

We will never forget you!


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