Thanksgiving Turkey Escapes Plate, Becomes House-Trained Pet

Albert the turkey was supposed to wind up as the main course at a Thanksgiving dinner, but two weeks before the holiday he was adopted as a rescue turkey, and now he lives as a house pet in the California home of a Hollywood TV producer.

According to Today, TV producer Brant Pinvidic and his family already had some chickens at their Santa Clarita home, and he got it into his head that it would be a good idea to "pardon" a Thanksgiving turkey. Pinvidic's daughter is a vegetarian, but the rest of the family is not. Pinvidic just figured he'd get two turkeys and they could live with the chickens, and the kids would think it was neat. When he brought the turkeys home, though, one turkey decided right away to join the chicken flock, but the other one insisted on following Pinvidic into the house.

Now Albert the rescue turkey is mostly a house pet. He sits on the sofas and hangs out in the kitchen, and always sits waiting at the door when Pinvidic gets home from work. Albert is even house-trained, which is a pretty impressive feat for a bird.

Most of the members of Pinvidic's family are not vegetarians, but they do say that nobody there eats turkey anymore.