The Feather by Katie

The Feather
by
Katie

One day in the mountains of California, my family and I were driving home after a long day of adventures. As we navigated through the winding roads, enjoying the beautiful sights of nature around us, I saw an unusual sight. As we rounded a sharp curve I was startled to see what I thought looked like a turkey standing in the middle of the road but as we drove closer, I gasped in amazement. It wasn’t at all a turkey, but a magnificent peacock! We pulled over to inspect it and saw that one of its legs was injured. As I got close, the peacock surprisingly didn’t move as if it knew we were there to save him. His deep brown eyes looked into mine and at that moment I knew we needed to save this peacock.

I decided to call him Peaps which was short for peacock. We took him home, fed him, and I searched online to learn more about peacocks. One thing I learned for sure was that Peaps was a male because of his beautiful feathers. 

Our next step was to find Peeps a vet, which was a hard experience since not many vets accept peacocks. Even after we found a good vet, it was still many days before we could schedule an appointment and it required a long drive for us of over 3 hours. “Can’t we have a Zoom vet appointment?”, asked my mom after calling so many vets. As it happens, I knew the answer. One of my school projects was to find a bill we were in favor of, and then write our assembly member a letter in support of the bill. My team chose bill A B thirteen ninety-nine, that allows veterinarians to do animal checkups online. The bill passed and it will make it easier for pet owners to get care for their animals. 

Now Peaps is part of our family, and we have made him a big enclosure outside our house. His leg is healing, he still carries a limp, but he is better, and that is all that matters to me.

One of Peaps’ beautiful feathers now sits proudly in a small white vase atop my bedroom drawer and reminds me daily of that very special day when we rescued Peeps the peacock. To me, the feather represents the heartwarming care and the challenges we all shared, not only saving Peep’s life but creating memories that I will never forget.