Pheasant!

The DNR says that this year the pheasant population level is as high as it has been in the last 20 years due to favorable weather and habitat conditions. We have more pheasants now since 1987. Pheasants used to scare the s--t out of me when I was a kid. I would walk through the pasture behind the house, on snake hill, and pheasants would squack and leap up. My heart would still be pounding long after the pheasant had flown out of sight. But aren't they beautiful birds? The feathers are so glamorous. Pheasants are native to Asia and were introduced to North America in 1857. One of my sisters says, "Pheasant!" whenever she hears a pheasant. She'll say "Pheasant" anytime, even in the middle of a sentence. If you're talking and she hears one she says, "Pheasant." It's become a contest who can say it first when a pheasant is heard. I've heard it so many times that I now say "Pheasant" when I hear one. Saying "Pheasant" when others are talking can confuse them-it's kinda funny to watch. A golden pheasant sent my on my journey to not eating meat. My ex's uncle had a game farm with pheasants, turkeys, peacocks, chickens, geese and ducks. He had one beautiful golden pheasant in a cage. I had watched this pheasant many weekend afternoons and admired his beautiful plumage. In the pheasant world, the males wore all the glamorous clothes. Eventually the golden pheasant ended up in our freezer. So I put him in the crockpot one Saturday afternoon with some onion soup mix. A few hours later I pulled him out. His little drumstick separated. I thought about this golden pheasant and pictured him sitting with his red and golden feathers and I just couldn't eat him.