I came home from work early today to drop Caitlyn off to go to the falls for the afternoon. When I got home, Mr. Turkey was collapsed in the water pan. Our heat index was around 100 if not above and his wading pan was empty. He had an automatic waterer in the pen to have water to drink, but evidentally, his being able to stand in the water in this heat was more important. I don't know what happened, Caitlyn and Kyle were both home and neither of them managed to make it out to refill water while I was at work. Kyle does it nearly everyday and I'm not sure what happened today for him to not do it. I grabbed the water hose and started running water over Mr. Turkey to cool him off and gave him a drink. His skin was almost too hot to touch. All I could do was cry and tell him I was sorry. I know, he's a turkey, but he was my pet and I had him for 4 years and I know laying in the sun cooking to death was a horrible way to die. I managed to get him carried under a shade tree. He weighed well over 50 lbs and was nearly more than I could manage. There was no way he was cooling off fast enough. I filled the 15 gallon rubber tub with water and got him lifted sat him in it. He only lasted a few minutes before I could see the color start to drain from his head. He was dying and I couldn't do anything about it. When I could feel his heart stop, I lifted him out and laid him in the grass by the porch. I covered him with a towel until Troy was home from work. It took 2 hours to get a hole big enough to bury him. We put him under the mimosa trees in the yard. We saved him from being a butterball turkey only to have him bake in the sun...I just won't get over it...my heart aches.
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