Among the many reasons that Iris was unloved throughout the neighborhood was that she fed the wild turkeys. They had grown big but not domesticated. They hopped onto people’s porches, loitered in the driveways, and behaved aggressively toward pedestrians. The women in the neighborhood always carried umbrellas when they walked their children or dogs: it’s believed that turkeys are so stupid that a stick is not enough to deter them. You have to open the umbrella to their faces to scare them off, the neighbors taught one another the trick. Gordon had received many emails, complaints, and protests
...more
