Mother Hen

When we returned from Hawaii my mom greeted Hannah with two chicks.  They were growing so quickly and becoming so friendly.  In fact, Hannah would pick them up and put them on her shoulder like a parrot!  At first, I looked at them as two things that took time to clean and feed and wished they were at my mom's house...under her care and responsibility.  After last week's tragedy, they hold a special place in my heart, especially Ms. Brown.  I pulled up to my house after a long day playing outside with friends.  The girls were crashed out, so I left the doors open and pulled weeds around the house.  I really wanted to tackle the weeds between the fence and the backyard.  I knew the chicks were roaming free up front so I carefully opened the fence and made sure I had a tight grip on the gate so that the dogs can't get out.  As I knelt down to pick my first batch of weeds, Taz just bolted out- the dog literally jumped over me and knew he would be able to escape between the small opening.  I knew I had to act quick before the chicks life's were in danger and didn't want to waste time by closing the gate behind me, but Luna beat me to the scene.  It was no surprise that Luna already had one of the chicks in her mouth.  I immediately look for the other, who was hiding in the bushes.  Once I realized she was safe, I tried to rescue Ms. Black.  It was too late, her wing was about 5 feet away from where Luna was standing.  Luna gently drops Ms. Black in front of me and walks away with her tail between her legs.  As much as I wanted to beat the crap out of Luna I just couldn't even hit her.  She's a bird dog, that's in her bloodline- retrieving birds.  It was my fault, plain and simple. 

As I was walking back from putting the dogs in the backyard, Ms. brown waddles her way over and flew to me.  At that point, tears came down and I felt AWFUL...emotionally & physically.  My stomach immediately started to hurt, I felt dizzy, and wanted to throw up.  Ms. Brown gripped her claws on my shirt and didn't want to let go.  I can see the panic in her tiny eyes.  I go back to Ms. Black and to my surprise she was still fighting for her life.  I felt even worse- I thought she was done, but she was trying so hard to get back up, but a few seconds later she stopped breathing.  I place Ms. Brown in her cage and called Gabe.  Of course, he doesn't answer- I called him 5 times non-stop and texted him.  He called about 10 min later, which felt like eternity and told him the news.  He tried to stop by several feed and pet stores to get another chick.  I feared that Ms. Brown wouldn't make it through the night with out her sister.

The following day I promised Hannah we would get another chick.  By the way, Hannah's reaction was not what I expected.  When I told her that Ms. Black was attacked by Luna she just made a sad face and said, "mom, we need to kill Luna- they can't be around the chicks...ever.  We need to be more careful & it's not your fault, it's all Luna's".  Her grudge towards Luna has gone away now!  Anyway, We made the trip to a feed store later in the afternoon after school & work.  We were so excited to know they were plenty of chicks left.  They were tiny, way more smaller than Ms. Black & Ms. Brown when my mom bought them.  We left with two chicks- a black one, who Hannah named Angel- Ms. Black's Angel in Heaven.  And a beautiful yellowish/white chick, who we named Sunflower.

When we arrived, Ms. Brown welcomed the two with open wings!  I think she loves her new role as Mother hen and likes her new life with these two young chicks.  She protects them and keeps them warm by cuddling with them.  It's truly the sweetest thing to watch.  It's amazing how female animals have the same mothering/nurturing traits as humans. 

Ms. Brown

Angel & Sunflower exploring

Ms. Brown on watch!

Cute little chicks =)