Very mysterious things have been going on in Solivita. One of the biggest is about our Turkey Population.

We did have a large turkey population here. For years when I walked my mom in the early mornings, we would see the turkeys getting down, sometimes we would see about 20 turkeys. Turkeys don’t get up in the morning, they get down because they sleep in the trees.

They have a ritual in the morning. Once the leader flies down the rest of the rafter flies down. Then they have a little opening ceremony or a dance, after that the lookout takes off and the rest of the turkeys gradually follow, all while the lookout keeps her distance.

I don’t mind the turkeys at all, they are beautiful and they mind their own business, they don’t interfere with me at all. They are much better than those awful sand cranes that march in wherever they want to and just take over. They are very territorial, they think everywhere is their turf.

I agree with Benjamin Franklin, the turkey should be our national bird. He thought they were a lot better than the Eagle who he said is lazy and not brave because the eagles will wait until other birds catch a fish and then swoop down and take it from them. They also back down when smaller birds challenge them.

I wish we still had all the turkeys but the turkey population almost vanished, for a couple of years, we didn’t see many at all; we don’t know what happened to them. Maybe it is because Maria on the corner that used to feed them got real sick and couldn’t feed them anymore. I’m not sure who their natural predators are, we certainly have enough dangerous critters here including alligators.

It is certainly a mystery but they were gradually coming back, we had several showing up before Thanksgiving, and then—Boom! They were gone again. I have a theory about this, I’ll share it with you, but first, I want to tell you about another mystery.

At our Solivita library we only shelve books that are 10 years old or younger. The ones we don’t shelve are stored upstairs in the administration building. Later they are donated either to the veterans or to the Polk County Corrections Department. A few weeks ago, twenty cartons of these books were stolen after they were placed in a locked room.

How in the heck can 20 cartons of books go missing from an over 55 community. How many of us have the stamina to carry off 2 cartons of books, let alone 20. I have a theory about this too.

You know I did very well when I attended the Canine Comprehensive College when I studied doggie detectiving.

Here’s what I think after diagnosing these two cases. I think the turkeys are smart, they knew that Thanksgiving was coming up, so they went into hiding until that holiday passed. They are reemerging now, so I this this makes my diagnosis very valid.

Further, stolen library books have to be an inside job. I haven’t figured out who carried out this heist, but I’m looking for insiders who seem to be dealing these books on the second-hand market.  When this mystery is resolved, we will all be able to rest easy. We need to get these criminals off of our Solivita streets.