Friendship ends in donation

    Ruth Petsch of Wauneta lost an old friend last year, but found a fitting way to memorialize him.
    Charlie the peacock died early in 2018, after years of hanging around Petsch’s home. Petsch, 80, donated his last set of tail feathers to the Cattlemen’s Ball live auction, where it was put on the block as a surprise item.
    Ball Treasurer Joey Large estimates the feathers, which filled most of a 5 foot, 8 inch-by-8 foot inch frame, brought in at least $5,000 in five rounds of bids. Winning bidders repeatedly had it re-auctioned before it was donated to McCook Community Hospital.
    The sale was the last act of a six-year friendship.
    Charlie apparently escaped from the west side of town, made his way to the east side, near Petsch’s home, where he attached to a wild turkey flock.
    Around for six years, “He was an old friend,” she said.
    He stuck around in the foulest winter weather, and every fall, he’d molt, losing his magnificent tail feathers. Then every spring, they’d grow back.
    Petsch’s life and her regard for Charlie took a special turn in May 2017, when she was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. Often, when she got home from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she’d spot Charlie.
    And Charlie became more than just a hanger-on.
    “All that he had been through, alone, you’d think, if he can survive out there alone, I sure could survive with the care of family and friends, a loving husband and thousands of prayers,” she said.
    Charlie provided the occasional laugh, as well. If feeding time was a bit late, he’d look through the kitchen window and squawk until he got a response. And Petsch’s husband, Rodney, decided he needed a “bird psychiatrist” after the bird developed something of a romantic attachment to the bumper of one of their cars.
    “He’d go out and romance that bumper,” he said.
    A year after Petsch’s diagnosis, early in 2018, the bird died in Joey and Myra Large’s driveway.
    “He just sat down in the driveway and they found him the next morning,” she said.
    The Petsches decided to have his tail feathers, which were particularly resplendent that year, mounted.
    The work was done by Shane Anderson of the co-op, and for a time, the feathers were kept there.
    They weren’t sure what would eventually become of them, but Large suggested they be put in the live auction.
    The tail feathers will go to the cancer center at the McCook hospital, but Petsch won’t need to visit them to recall Charlie.
    “He was just kind of a neat friend,” she said.