They say a dog is man’s best friend, but it would be hard to convince 80-year-old Emmett Ferguson of that today.

Ferguson, of Athens, who lost his wife in 1999 and now lives alone, says his dog is now a wild turkey.

“I want to introduce you to my dog,” he said. “She is two-legged and has feathers. I call her Miss Turkey.”

Of course the dog is a turkey — a wild turkey hen that has been visiting Ferguson at his U.S. 31 South home for the past six weeks.

“She just appeared out of no where and took up here,” Ferguson said. “She follows me every where I go. When I go in the house she pecks on the door and when I cut my grass, she’s right in behind me.”

Miss Turkey is to a full-grown wild turkey. She loves the corn that Ferguson feeds her.

She appeared one morning in his back yard and today she comes and goes, but Ferguson said she often roosts in the trees in his back yard.

“When I go to the mailbox, she’s right in behind me,” he said. “I talk to her and she talks back, but I don’t know turkey talk and I have no idea what she’s saying.”

Ferguson said Miss Turkey came from a wooded area behind his home and when she leaves, she heads that direction. But he said there are no signs of any other feathered friends.

“It’s just her,” he said. “I’ve heard no gobbling or anything like that to tell me she comes from a family of turkeys. I think she’s alone.”

Ferguson often finds Miss Turkey in his garden.

“She’s scratching a lot in my garden and causing some damage. For that reason, I would like to give her away. She needs a good home.”

Ferguson has found another home for Miss Turkey, he said. A man who lives in western Limestone County who is raising turkeys has offered to take her.

But as of this weekend, they have not been able to convince Miss Turkey she is leaving.

They can’t catch, he said.