I’m rehabilitating a chicken (this from the girl who hates anything with wings). Still, the chicken needs me so I guess that outweighs my fears. “Lucky Chicken”, which is what I call her now, recently survived an attack of some sort - we think it was a raccoon. We’re pretty sure that Joe interrupted the attack and, in essence, saved “LC”. The damages were pretty severe – the critter was gnawing on her head and neck so she’s missing a lot of feathers in that area and we’re not sure if she’ll be blind or not. She also has a strange little tic which causes her head to move to the right sometimes. She’s also missing part of her upper beak. Despite all that, I’m feeling very confident in my abilities to save her but you can never be too sure when it comes to chickens. Every day I take her out and feed her water mixed with antibiotics and I try to get some food in her as well.
Zoe has also been very involved in the process and loves to help out.
There is something very meaningful about caring for an injured animal. I see it in Zoe’s body language as she leans in to gently dispense the water or as she uses the towel to wipe off "LC’s" feathers. She talks quietly to her and gently reassures her.
When the rooster moves in, however, she’s a screaming demon. The rooster has tried to kill “LC” a couple of times and no, I am not being at all dramatic about that. There is nothing amorous in is approach – he’s out for blood. Zoe jumps up and chases the rooster away swinging whatever she happens to have in her hands.
So proud that she is turning out to be such a wonderful, little farm girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment