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I Saved a Chicken from Super Flea Yesterday |
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by Jessica Logsdon
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I Saved a Chicken from Super Flea Yesterday |
I saved a chicken from Super Flea yesterday, she looked like she had been caged her entire life. When I first saw her she was in a cage all by herself and she looked very depressed, they had her marked as a rooster, but I knew she was a hen with abnormally long legs which made her look like a rooster. My suspicions were confirmed when I brought her home and introduced her to my two miniature roosters who both fell in love at first sight. My white fluffy silkie rooster Krishna danced and danced all around her trying to impress her with the rhythm of his fluffy feet. Meanwhile my miniature Japanese rooster, Phaedrus, kept twirling in circles in front of her repeatedly showing her his iridescent tail feathers which he is so very proud of, but she was in shock. Her legs were very weak and her feet and toes did not work properly because she had spent her an entire life standing in a metal cage, her poor little broken feet had never experienced the soft feeling of grass. Her face was shocked and she was overwhelmed by the roosters and all of the other hens roaming around her freely. Oh, to be free after a life of being caged what a feeling that must be? Chickens of course are social creatures, they live together in herds, but she seemed withdrawn, alone, even among her new free chicken friends who all took the time to introduce themselves one by one. I felt good thinking the roosters would keep her stimulated by following her around the yard and it seemed like the perfect remedy to overcome her imprisonment. However in the evening as all the chickens were going into their chicken house to call it a night, Red still seemed to be in shock so I carried her into the chicken house and layed her in a basket of leaves next to JaJa, a beautiful little gray fluffly silkie chicken that I had also saved from Super Flea, and who grew up to be a diligent mother bird. I knew that JaJa would recognize the smell of Super Flea on Road Hard Red and I thought perhaps JaJa would be sympathetic to the condition of her new chicken friend. Chickens have an amazing sense of smell and they also have impressive memories. However, in the morning after all the chickens had made their descent from their house I noticed that JaJa and Red were no where to be found. So I went into the chicken coop to check on Red and discovered that at sometime in the night Red had climbed into the same basket as JaJa and they were still cuddled up together. JaJa is the name for a medicine bird. I thought perhaps Red was just extra tired from being introduced into her new environment, or pehaps from being awoken at the crack of dawn by little roosters crowing, which may have also been a new experience for her as well. I reached down into the basket and Red felt very warm and JaJa pecked at my hand dissatisfied at my presence. I gave red a nudge but she did not move, she must of died very recently, perhaps while snuggling up next to another hen for the first time in her sad caged chicken life. Jeff says she died of blissfulness, knowing for the first time in her life that she was free. JaJa stayed cuddled up next to her until I wrapped Red up into a sheet and buried her in the chicken cemetry. My two roosters seemed disappointed by her quick departure, but at least for one day she felt the soft grass on her feet and she felt loved by her fellow chickens in this lifetime.
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