A Turkey's Thanksgiving: Joe Byrnes

          Everybody knows the story of Thanksgiving, but have you ever heard it from me, the turkey? Humans think of Thanksgiving as a time to be with family and to be thankful. However, these turkey-eaters never think of how other turkeys and I spend our days leading up to Thanksgiving.
          We Turkeys always dread November. If we could get rid of November altogether and go right from October to December, we would. But it does not work like that. Every November we have to worry about suddenly being shot, while we are minding our own business. Last year, was probably one of my closest calls yet. I will never forget the moment, that day, my life was almost taken from my family, just so I can be put on display in the center of a human's long, rectangular table.
          That day, I was just roaming around. I knew I had to be cautious for any humans looking to hunt me, but it had been very quiet for hours now and I was not too concerned. I was getting hungry and I wanted to find something to eat. I saw a fallen tree in the distance and adjacent to the tree was an abundance of plants and worms. Once I got over to the fallen tree, I started to eat some of the plants. While taking my last bite, I was planning on going back home to the rest of my family, when all of a sudden I heard a loud BANG! A human had just tried to shoot me, but barely missed next to me, and hit the fallen tree. I was terrified and my feet were frozen in place. I did not know what to do and I did not know where I was getting shot at from. The only thing I could do was run. I ran as fast as my little turkey legs could move. I heard footsteps chasing after me, but all I could think about was being with my family and not on top of the long, rectangular table.
          Up  ahead, I saw my home and I screamed to let my family know what is happening, "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Goooobbbbllleeee!!" I saw the scared faces of my family, looking through the window, watching me run with the human aiming the barrel of his weapon at my tiny little head for a "last effort shot." I get to the entrance of my home and I hear it again. BANG! BANG! The human shot at me again, but luckily he missed. Once I make it inside my family is grateful for me to be alive, but my mother is ridiculing me for going near humans. I tried to tell her that I did not know anything was near, but she would not listen to me.
          I ended up going to bed that night with a lecture on how dangerous it is to be around humans because they are turkey-eaters who do not think about how turkeys feel when throughout all of November, we are being hunted down just to be put on the center of that long, rectangular table.