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Show Animal fancier houses menagerie V ; : ..; : --. " V l ' , ' ' : 1 l ' -. i, t Edward (Skinny) Turner gives some TLC to his dog, Goldie, who was shot with birdshot recently by some unknown person. By MARCELLA WALKER The house sits way back from the road. The drive to the house is defined by large white rocks which were brought in from the desert. It must have taken a lot of work to load them up and bring them home. The house was built room by room by Edward Laverl Turner, better known as "Skinny." He and his wife have lived in this house off and on for 60 years. Lofty trees of all kinds and descriptions reach toward the heavens and shade all that lies below, including Skinny's house and all his little animals. Skinny, 79, sports a long white beard which might make children think he was Santa. He is a kind of "Santa" to animals. He loves them all and has had a good many over the years. A stroll to the back of his house makes it possible to see one pen after another, all fenced, where he keeps his pets. First of all there is a cote of doves. He said their cooing is one of the pleasant sounds he likes to listen to each day. His home is so far back from the road, and the jungle like undergrowth and trees on every side, keep the sounds of the world at bay, and the doves do sound pleasant to the ear. The next pen houses his two pups. One is Goldie. Skinny showed us where she had been shot with birdshot bir-dshot recently. He does not know who did it. The dogs have an insulated dog house. Skinny said, "I won't keep them (the animals) if I can't keep them good." Next there are some empty cages. "I used to have chuckars here but someone shot all of them, except for two that I gave away to protect them," Skinny noted. There are chickens, fantail pigeons, rabbits, a peahen and peacock, golden pheasants, and a goose. Skinny used to have a gaggle of geese but gave them away. Then a lady brought him a goose. He would like to find a friend for his goose but hasn't been able to do so yet. There is another pen of chickens. Skinny told us that all his roosters had been shot. "They tend to crow early in the mornings," he explained. He paused a moment and pulled on his beard. "I have had two pigs poisoned and two ducks poisoned. The hay had been poisoned and I didn't know and as I fed it to the rabbits, rab-bits, they died," he observed. There are some banty chickens and some more pigeons. He has a blue heeler dog in a cage at the back. It belongs to his sister and she keeps it at her house during the day but it sleeps in it's pen at Skinny's at night. There are three goats and two lambs. Skinny said he has had a variety of animals over the years, especially chickens. Early on, when he was first fir-st married, he had a pig or two and some chickens, and a lamb or two when he could get them. We passed another burrow of rabbits rab-bits and a covey of quail, a mother and a bunch of fluffy babies. Skinny has a dog trap "that would hold a bear." He has caught a few dogs in it. It is a cage type of trap. He has to keep the cages of all the animals padlocked or they would all be gone, he said. On the west side of his property he showed us where he was shot with a BB. The shot imbedded itself in his elbow and had to be dug out. Skinny loves rocks. He has brought many varities in from the desert. He makes them into planters plan-ters or other ornaments. When asked how he could afford to feed all the animals, Skinny kind of smiled and said, "We just do it, somehow." Skinny served in World War II for two years in the North and South Pacific in the U. S. Navy. Other times he was away from home to work but he always managed to keep the house going. He has worked on the railroads and in the mines. He retired in 1972 from the Utah State Prison where he had worked for 16 years. He has been called Skinny since he was very young because he was so skinny. "I only weighed 130 when I got married," Skinny added. He and his wife, Jennie, have raised seven children. They now have 28 grandchildren and "close to 50 great-grandchildren" and seven great-great-grandchildren. Skinny was born in Lehi but was raised in Pleasant Grove in a house next to where his house is now. Teachers and others often bring children to see Skinny's menagerie. He enjoys showing the animals to the children. Skinny has had a lot of trouble with someone, he's not sure who, killing his animals, leaving threatening notes, and snooting him in the arm, over the years. The police have been called in but they have not been successful in finding who does all the killing. He'd like it to stop. At the end of the tour of his menagerie, Skinny looked over his pens of animals, his rocks and his ornaments, "I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said. This is his hobby. This is where he stays, so he has what he likes. |