With Thanksgiving fast approaching I am reminded of the all the ones I spent with Kevin. The first year was the only one we spent apart. We were always with his family on the next three years. First at his parents, then in Modesto with his sister and beautiful nieces and nephew, and last year was our turn. We were in Alturas at a rental home and Kevin had made a fence for Duke and Belle that we "thought" was good enough to keep them in. The week before Thanksgiving I came home from work to find a note on our door that read:

Dear Neighbors,

Our seven year old caught your dog mauling our Tom turkey this morning. The turkey did not survive and we are now missing the other turkey and some chickens. Please contact us as soon as possible.

I was mortified! I called Kevin almost in tears. The neighbors had put Duke and Belle back in the back yard and fixed the hole they escaped out of. When I looked in the back yard all I could see was a pile of feathers. I know Duke was not the only culprit because Belle had a tiny feather stuck to her nose and looked at me like "what the hell did I do?" When Kevin got home we went to the neighbors and they were very gracious. It turns out, Duke ate the turkey that was supposed to feed their church congregation for Thanksgiving dinner. Again...I was mortified. Their only request was that we replace the turkey with a frozen one for their church. To make matters EVEN worse...the woman was 9 months pregnant and being induced in 2 days. I was so embarrassed for my animal children that behaved so badly! Kevin and I went strait to the grocery store and bought the biggest turkey we could find...unfortunately due to the astronomical prices in the small town store, the turkey was $40!!! We paid like 1/6 that when we shopped two days later in Kalamath Falls, OR!