Trixie – the only turkey in Galway looking forward to Christmas

Trixie is on course to break a bird record – by becoming the first Galway turkey to survive two Christmases!

Trixie was dubbed the ‘luckiest turkey in Ireland’ when she was spared the chop, and escaped the oven last Christmas.

Her luck was about to run out this year after being fattened up slaughter . . . but she’s got another reprieve and is once again the only turkey in Ireland looking forward to Christmas.

Last December, Trixie the turkey was destined for the dinner table of St Mary’s nursing home, in Shantalla in the city.

She was supposed to be the centrepiece of the Christmas Day feast for residents and staff but fate and a broken wing intervened to save Trixie from the Christmas chop.

The reason for the reprieve was because Trixie was put on a course of antibiotics . . . and turkeys on medication cannot be eaten.

Residents and staff voted to keep Trixie as a pet, and she joined a rooster and two hens already living there.

Now the feathered friend has recovered fully, was fattened up all year, and the nursing home’s chef was eyeing up Trixie for this year’s Christmas Day feast.

But residents have grown so attached to Trixie, they’ve once again voted that she be spared.

St Mary’s Director of Nursing, Yvonne Carpenter, says some residents were happy to see Trixie killed but the majority voted to save her again this year.

“They won’t let her go,” says Ms Carpenter, who revealed Trixie has got fan mail since her story of survival appeared in last year’s Connacht Tribune.

Trixie, was a gift from a farmer out in Boleybeg in Barna.

When she arrived she was just seven months old and weighed about six kilos. Now she’s a year older, and weighs 13.8 kilos – ample meat for a Christmas feast, but in reality she has nothing to worry about!

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.