I am not dead not yet

I have hardly slept at all these last two weeks so I am sorry I have not been updating you regularly my friends.

I have nightmares of being taken back behind the barn and put on the old stump - the very stump from which I made my famous speech - and having this neck of mine cut by the man's cleaver that I can see hanging right over there in the kitchen.

Maybe I will steal his cleaver.

But no, he will just find another one.

I cannot sleep and I cannot eat and I have maybe gotten a little skinnier lately but only in the way that I can notice. Carmel mentioned something but I think Sally told her about me not eating and maybe she was just being nice.

I am exhausted and even making it into the farmhouse tonight has been a chore but I know it has been a long time since I gave you any kind of update at all and so I thought I should pop on just so that you know I am not dead well not yet anyway.

I hope you are all having a lovely sleep as I write this and that you are not living in fear that you will be eaten because it is not a nice way to be living I can assure you of that no sirree bob.

I am nervous for my own survival

Hello all you beautiful people, I am very nervous right now for my own survival when it comes time for the man and the woman to again celebrate Thanksgiving this year.

I think that intend to eat me.

I keep replaying the idea of what happened to Biggun last year in my mind and then the other thing I have now taken a different approach on in my thoughts is how often they have been feeding me and the excess pounds I may have been putting on over the last little while.

Your old friend Goebbels here may be in a little bit of trouble.

I have shared my thoughts with Sally and she has agreed and then I shared my thoughts with the others and they have all agreed as well that my days may be numbered here around the farm.

I do not know what to do, but I know that my work with the COA must not stop but I am also frightened and fear that I need to start thinking about a way to save my own skin.

Help.

Thanksgiving

Sally asked me today why I was the only turkey on the farm and I told her that it was not always this way and that there used to be another turkey and his name was Biggun and, well, while we do not know all of the answers, and may never know all of the answers, all of the clues that we do have suggest that he was eaten last Thanksgiving by the man and the woman.

She was quiet for a while after I said this and then she asked me what Thanksgiving was and I realized that I had never even really looked too much into it before. I had become so focused on the ideas that people were eating animals - and a lot of animals - that I never spent time looking at what Thanksgiving is all about.

I have spent some time on google.com tonight so that I can have a better answer for her than "I don't know" which is what I said to her today.

I have learned that when people from Europe first arrived in this country they shared a feast with the Wampanoag in the fall and then I read that it is a time when families come together and express gratitude and then I read some more that families should not express religious or political ideas at Thanksgiving because that makes for a not very fun time.

So it does sound like people come together for the right reasons but there are a lot of rules.

I need to read up on this a little bit more I think but if you have any notes or thoughts on Thanksgiving I would be very happy to hear them as well!

Sally Is In

Today I could not hide my excitement from my new little roommate Sally as I got all caught up on everything happening on twitter. Over the past few days she has earned my trust and I am looking to once again live up to my promise of living a life of heroic virtue and I need to see the good in other animals and I have to recognize that she has been through a very terrible time.

A cult, which is different but also sort of the same as the word occult, is what she called being a part of Barry's gang of chickens. She said that he had started calling the farmyard Barry's Barnyard and that the chickens would be in charge of things alongside him once he won over all of the other animals. She had been feeling very uncomfortable and unsafe ever since he had painted blood on their heads - Rex's blood! - and called them his little redheads and she had been looking for a way out and she is super grateful for the Committee and the support of all of us in the COA.

I showed her everything twitter this morning and showed her my connection to the outside world and I told her that I have a weblog too where I can write longer things than I can on twitter and that I sneak into the farmhouse some nights to tell the whole world what is happening on our little farm and try to find solutions for all of the animals that people eat and ways to make them eat less animals and I also told her what a vegan was and she said she also likes vegans.

It is interesting having a roommate because she does not take up much room at all and sometimes I even forget that she is there but other times, like when it is dusk and our eyes are a little heavy it is nice to be in my own shack and just have someone to talk to. She is a very brave little bird and much smarter than I would ever have thought to give a chicken credit for.

She is my friend and she is now in our little group of close friends and let me just say that life is a little better right now than it has been because of her.

My Cellphone!

My friends!

I have come in here tonight to share just a little update but oh my goodness, my cellphone is right here and charging next to the computer!

I am too excited for any kind of update so I am going to just take it back now and tomorrow I will see all of my friends on twitter again!!!

So much has happened that I will not even know where to begin!!

Curious Little Sally

I have to be quick because now that I have Sally staying in my shack she is always asking questions. She noticed that I left last night for a while and asked me where I had gone and I said I liked to walk up and around the farmhouse at night and take in the cool air but I do not yet trust her enough to tell her about my weblog.

She has also asked me questions about my connection to the bigger outside world and I know she has heard rumors of my cellphone and of something called twitter but I have been avoiding answering in detail because neither of those things is a real thing for me now.

I will be staying inside my shack each night for the next few nights now just so she does not get suspicious so if you visit my weblog and do not see any update for a little while that is exactly why.

Goodnight beautiful animals. This turkey loves you all.

Barry is Gone

Overnight, he left.

Confirmed by Klaus and his network of mice, Barry was seen jumping from the main gate and heading down the roadway that leads away from the farm in the direction that trucks come and go from.

He did not say goodbye to the chickens who refuse to believe he has really gone.

Sally has been in my shack all day as she does not feel safe with the other chickens right now. I told her I would look after her.

The Committee will not meet again but they have put out the official word that Barry was solely responsible for the attack on the farmyard. The idea that a farmyard animal could willfully orchestrate such a monstrous event is hard to believe but fortunately the facts are right there in front of us all.

I do not believe Barry will come back. It is him and a few chickens against the rest of the farm.

Maybe, just maybe, we can have a bit of peace around here for a bit.

Good night my beautiful friends. I think I may sleep better tonight than I have in a long time.

Carmel and the Chickens

What a day!

At last the truth but before I get too far ahead of myself I should tell you everything that happened in order.

The Committee held their last scheduled hearing today and they asked Carmel to speak after me on purpose because they knew some of the things I would be saying about Barry and they knew Carmel's portion of the story would follow nicely after mine.

Carmel, that sweet little lamb, took questions from Esther about the night of the massacre and she told everyone, as loudly as she could speak, that she had seen the chicken coop all boarded up as the man and the woman came rushing down from the farmhouse and, within a few minutes, she looked again and the boards had been taken down.

All the animals had known that Barry had taken wood into the chicken coop - they had all seen him do it, he had not even tried to hide it. And the fact that his closest friends on the farm, if the term could be used lightly given my own testimony and accusation about what had happened to Rex, had been protected.

Why had they been prepared for the attack?

All signs continued to point to Barry and the Committee thanked Carmel and told everyone that Barry had not responded to their calls out for him to participate in the hearings and they were ready to declare their final verdict when a small voice piped up that there was still more to the story.

All eyes turned and who did we see but Sally, the little chicken, stepping forward into the centre of the group.

"I have something to say," she said, "and I better say it now."

None of us knew what to expect.

"I have been taking everything I have heard back to Barry and have told him everything you have all been saying," she said. The crowd roared angrily but were silenced by Ginger stomping her hoof and calling for order.

"Continue," she said, once quiet had been restored.

"He has been so angry at it all and he is saying everything you are saying about him is fake and that this is all an attempt by Goebbels to ruin his good name."

The animals all looked at me - me! - and I am not even on this Committee, but I could tell that they were not looking at me accusingly. Barry had shown his true character often enough that they knew better than to believe his idle lies.

Sally looked at me too, but there was surprising kindness with the look that she gave to me.

"And I am here today to tell you all that I know a lie when I see it and..." she paused... "Barry has been the one lying this whole time."

She raised her voice above the murmuring that went up in the crowd and continued over them all.

"He brought us the wood and told us we would need it one night to be kept safe. He told us when to barricade the doors and he even told us that he trusted the fox that animals were saying had been seen but that he wanted us to have protection just in case."

Sally looked at the members of the Committee and finished with this:

"I know this will make the coop unsafe for me but he has brainwashed the other chickens into believing everything he says and they would rather follow him now than risk admitting they've been wrong this whole time. I had my doubts after Rex but after this massacre I cannot stay quiet any longer. Barry did this. Barry is the reason why so many animals died that night."

Oh my friends the stomping of hoofs and mews and bleats and gobbles and oinks and all the sounds that came from all of us after she was finished. It was complete joy and confirmation that we had without a shadow of a doubt proven the guilt we had all suspected.

We made so much noise that our lookouts, those clever squirrels, let us know the man was coming towards us from the farmhouse and so we all scattered before any formal announcement could be made by the Committee but we all went back to our homes knowing that justice could now be dealt.

In Memoriam

Today marked one month since the massacre.

We brought flowers to the goose pond and the goat pen.

Very few words were said.

Barry is still hiding and Carmel takes the stand tomorrow and I think the Committee is very nearly done with their work.

I miss my friends on twitter. I am sad and could use some happiness right now.

I just went to google.com and I googled things that make me happy and while the words there were nice they were not coming from people who know me and who might know better words to say.

My Day With The June 23rd Committee

Today it was my turn to speak with the Committee and I had been practicing in my shack for the last couple of days as to what I was going to say.

My first thought to myself was that I needed to get over being so sad about everything and recognize that I was in a position to help make things right and that the anger I was feeling could be channeled better and oh boy did I ever give myself a good pep talk because I spoke to the Committee today like a turkey on a mission.

I was asked about my encounter with the fox on the night of the massacre but I asked the indulgence of the Committee if I could backtrack and try to frame the context of my encounter with what had been happening on the farmyard.

My beautiful friends, I wish you could have been there to hear me speak.

I brought it right back to the stump speech and, at first, there were maybe some murmurs of disapproval but then the animals in the audience started to see the dots I was connecting.

I told them how Barry's attitude had changed after the stump speech and how he had started spending all of his time with the chickens. I met Sally's eye in the crowd at this part of the story and that little chicken did not look away from me. I saw that she was in fact nodding along with me.

I told them how strange I found it that Rex had gone missing and that it had been blamed on a hawk when it is well known that cats also like to eat chickens and I just let that thought hang there without saying anything about Barry directly.

I then spoke about the Coalition of Animals and our work for animal rights and how some animals, mostly Barry and the chickens, seemed to want to vilify the work we were doing. I said how I felt like we had been targeted with changing our sign to look like a chicken and how I, personally, felt targeted as I had been the one to start the conversation right back at the stump speech.

The Committee let me speak but at this point Ginger did interrupt me and asked me to get to the night of the massacre and I had felt I had laid my groundwork well enough.

I reminded everyone of Klaus's testimony and how Barry had been seen opening the latch, not that any of the animals needed reminded but it added to my part of the story where I told them how the fox had come looking for me specifically and how it had known my name.

That got the reaction I wanted from the crowd for sure.

This was not just a massacre, I said at the end, but a targeted effort to silence me once and for all and hopefully destroy the work the COA has done thus far, an assassination attempt on Barry's biggest threat and foe under the guise of an attack on the farmyard as a whole.

I did not speak much about my bravery because that was not the tone that was needed and I thanked the man and the woman for their timing at the end of my speech.

The animals were quiet and the Committee excused me and thanked me for my testimony.

Sally disappeared again before I could catch up to her and I just wonder what she had gone to tell Barry about that.

Should I be scared? I am not. I am angry and Barry's campaign to take over the farmyard has gone far enough and, my friends, I think with today's testimony I have said what other's have been too afraid to say out loud.

Barry has to go.