Don't be a goose

Here's the other political animal tee I did last weekend. This one was the same process: think of how to use the animal picture I had taken, extract the image, put it into Illustrator, in this case, to add the text, choose appropriate typefaces for the flavor of the message. I had already extracted the turkey for the Ben Franklin tee, so it was available when I thought of what I wanted for the back.

How I got the turkey picture is kind of funny. There are wild turkeys here. Sometimes two or three, or I've seen up to seven in a flock, will be coming through the yard every day for a while, scratching everything up. When they vanish, I never know if the coyotes, who also sometimes walk through the yard in the middle of the day, got them, or if they just left. But it's never been possible to get very close to them. I had seen some interesting interactions with the cats, some of whom hunted for a living before I got them. Some of the cats seemed to think the turkeys might be huntable; others seemed afraid of them (smarter, considering the relative sizes of turkey and cat).

Well, when I went to the quilt show at the fairgrounds last spring, over at the lunchroom building, there was this young turkey hanging out by the back door. I guessed that the seniors who have lunch there during the week, had been giving it handouts — and it was waiting for its lunch! Anyway, it came right up to the door, and didn't leave when a couple of us went out, so I had a chance to get a good picture.

The dog picture from the other day, he was funny too. He was barking furiously as we walked by, and I thought I'd like a picture of a barking dog. But every time I pressed the shutter, he had his mouth closed and was just staring at me. He should have been a politician — he'd never be caught in the act. It was appropriate to use him on a political t-shirt. Here's the goose design on a cap sleeve tee.