I Was Having Such a Good Day, Too

[amberfocus]

Tonight when I went to put the chickens and ducks in I found Navi (the white chicken) dead. It is sad even though I didn't even really like Navi, but I hate to see any animal die, and I feel a little guilty that I didn't like her but she was aggressive and extremely loud and not at all affectionate. She was the meanest hen we had and she was picking on the chicks, not letting them get up on the roosts on her side of the chicken coop and pecking at them if they tried and she would chase them away from the water (we put up several watering stations to prevent harm to the youngsters). She'd been acting off all week, and hadn't laid an egg in a week despite being only a year old. This morning she seemed just fine, but this afternoon Tobias said she was walking around in circles and acting very unchickenlike. We found her belly up with her feet in the air under the old apple tree.

Tobias is taking it hard. He is very attached to the animals and it's been almost a year since one of the birds died so he thought it was past. I told him at least she died quietly in her sleep and not torn apart by racoons like the others. It's so sad to see him like this. Rose is more philosophical, but then she's not as attached to the birds and has far less to do with their day to day care, but she was sad for her brother taking it so hard. She's very empathetic when it comes to him.

Of course this is the weekend that my mother went away to see her great neices graduate from college (one Master's and one B.A.) so she's not even here to deal with it. I had to take her and wrap her up in three garbage sacks and put her in the garage. We will bury her in the morning, but I'm afraid something will just dig her up again. We'll have to dig pretty deep to prevent that. And I don't even know where Mom would want her buried. I'm waiting to hear from her. I left a message at her hotel.

I also feel guilty for thinking how much better things will be in the coop now. Already the chicks were spread across the three lower roosts (the hens get the top one) instead of huddled in the straw on the floor so they wouldn't get pecked by Navi. All of the chicks (and one duck) went in tonight on their own and I have to think that was because Navi wasn't there pecking at them as they came in. I am glad she didn't die in the coop. The last time that happened the others did not want to go back in there that night. As it is they seemed to be giving the apple tree a wide berth. We hosed the ground down under the tree after they were all inside. That is one of their favorite shade spots and I don't want them to avoid going there.

On a brighter note, most of the youngsters have been named now. For the ducks it is Patches, Noisy, Len Tao, and Inigo Montoya. For the chicks we have Silver, Curious, Pipsquick, Half-pint, Aura, and Rory (Gilmore, not Williams). Three of the chicks remain nameless, mostly because they have not shown much in the way of distinctiveness yet). The three remaining are white and one is goldish yellow. I am thinking one of the white ones should be called Stubborn or Willful, but it is hard to tell them apart except when the one is being stubborn. Although I am also thinking of Prue, Piper, and Phoebe just to be done with it.