Today is the saddest of days…At some point, in the early
hours of the morning, my sweet Opal Chicken passed away. She had not been as spry as usual for the
past several days, and she was looking a little “rough”, but it was not really
obvious what was wrong with her. We still don’t really know why she died. Due to the extreme weather (at least for
Texas), I had been taking her to the coop so that she could eat and drink and
move around during whatever might be the warmest part of the day, with heat
lamps blazing; however, she had been spending the nights (and even some parts
of the day when it was really cold) inside the house with us, in her crate in
the craft room. She had been moving
around the coop as usual when I brought her in yesterday. When I took her out last night for her
bedtime feeding and drinking, she was eating and drinking okay. Robert brought her in and we put her to
bed. The strange thing was that instead
of plopping down and settling in as usual, she was still standing up when I
went to bed late last night. Still, it
was quite a shock when Robert came in the bedroom and told me this morning that
she had died. I’m guessing that might
have been that faint little “peep”, “squeak”, “sigh(?)” sound that I heard
early this morning…I wish I would have known…
I’m glad that Robert was here when that time came…it’s just
really hard for me to handle things like burying my little friends, and I’m so
grateful that he takes care of those things.
As soon as Robert had finished digging the hole, we wrapped her in a
blanket and together we placed her in her final resting place. She is buried next to her sister, Ruby
Chicken, near their coop, and I’m sure that I will think of my sweet Opal
Chicken every time I trot out into the back yard.
I loved Ruby Chicken also, but since she left us some time
ago, I had a lot of time to spend with Opal Chicken. Since she was a lone chicken, I felt a need
to make sure that she felt extra-loved, and it was important to me that she
didn’t feel all alone in the world (hence, sleeping inside the house at times). She was a fun little companion and provided
me with lots of comical moments. I made
sure that we always had some mealy worms on hand (I bought them at Tractor
Supply), and she would go bonkers over them!
She could be on the other end of the yard, but as soon as I started
shaking the jar, she would come running…chickens are so cute when they run! She loved to cuddle, and if anyone ever tells
you that chickens are mean, you just tell them that they never met Opal Chicken! I sure hope that she knows how very much I
loved her.
We are not going to get any more chickens for awhile. I have enough to keep me busy with all that I
have going on right now, and I also don’t think I could ever “replace” my sweet
Opal, and I’m not ready to try. But,
someday….down the road…when we are ready…we will have a little flock of
chickens once more, and it will be solely because of our memories of the joy and love that we have known from
sharing our lives with two wonderful girls named Ruby and Opal…
