The Day of the Turtle Theft

Tucker announced the presence of a spring hawk today. Bounding around, barking at the sky, in warning of dire consequences should the hawk intrude. This pleases me greatly, as the hawk is a beautiful hunter that unfortunately likes chicken. For the first few years of Tucker's life, I tried to get him riled about noticing and warning the big fliers. I would see, or hear a hawk and rush outside, calling to Tucker in that high-pitched frantic voice "Hawk! Tucker! Hawk! Hawk!" and pointing meaningfully at the sky.  He would humor me, bounding right and left, run to the top of the hill, bring me a unstuffed Tucker toy. Not for a minute tilting his head to the sky and clueing in to what I was desperately attempting to connect.
That all changed on The Day of the Turtle Theft- the day where all birds larger than a song are BNG (Bird non-grata). It happened on a Saturday morning in late spring. I was at work when Tucker brought a prize home to the family. I never actually inspected said prize, but from the tales of Huz and kids, I learned that Tucker had found a large chunk of rotting turtle. Turtle Treasure of great stench. I believed them. The nose knows.
For a few days, he carried the turtle hither and yon, as he does with his other possesions- Mr. Pig, 'Raffi, Buffalo, etc. Turtle was one of the club. Until The Day of the Turtle Theft. It was a sunny late morning, a few days after Turtle was adopted.  Tucker was basking in the extravagance, next to Turtle, when from the previously unremarkable sky, down came a very bad bird, a bird of few scruples. In truth, it was a bird for whom I am grateful, and he/she was just doing their verily important job. Turkey Vultures are quite prevalent around here, and are usually found hovering around the carcass of a road kill deerskunkraccoonpossum. Naturally, Turtle was ready for a Turkey Vulture to tidy up a bit. Tucker was highly resentful. A Pirate from the sky had stolen his bounty.

To this day, he has a special bark he reserves for large birds. Sometimes they are so far off in the distance I have a hard time zeroing in on his target. Vultures and hawks both qualify for preemptive warning, and our chickens are just a smidgen safer from hawks. If only Tucker had become so inclined before The Great Birthday Chicken Massacre of '05.....