Life does have a way of throwing curveballs, doesn't it?
We had a WONDERFUL evening with two dear friends in town tonight. First-of-the-year dinner at The Angry Trout (now that they're open for the summer) and then a cocktail at The Raven. We were happily tired and looking forward to bed.
But, when I went out to do chores, I found the Black Leghorn I'd been carefully watching for about a week or so dying on the floor of the chicken house. I gently picked her up and held her close. She could barely keep her eyes open. I came into the house to ask Tom for help, and we put her out of her misery. Such is life, I guess. You enjoy the good and you deal with the bad.
'Tis NEVER easy to lose a critter, even a bird-brained chicken --- not my favorite animal on the homestead --- but how I do love those fresh, orange-yoked organic eggs.
ReplyDeleteMakes me think back to the first (and only) goat kid we lost, at birth. I was home alone, had never seen anything born, and Mama Nancy Goat was not happy with me for wanting to be up close and personal during the event.
The books all said that Mama Goat knew what to do and if she seemed nervous having human company, leave her alone, for heaven's sake.
So I spent a half hour pacing in the house before going back out to check again. By that time it was too late. The kid was born completely enclosed in the sac and had suffocated. After getting it out of the sac, I was in tears, (hey -- it was our first animal birth!)so called our dear neighbor lady who ran a cattle operation with her husband. She came right over and tried resusitation but, of course, it was no good.
That was a long time ago but I still occasionally think of that darned little black and white buck kid and feel I could have saved him if I'd only not been so . . . well, bird-brained.
Yeah, yeah, I know . . . it's YOLKED, not yoked!!
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