End of an Era....

10 yrs ago I got a weekend job collecting eggs at a free range farm just up the road, 8 yrs ago I chucked that job in, and over that period when it came cull time for the shed when the moult hit them I would brings some chooks home with me, at one stage we had about 20 of them!!!  Well over the years they have fallen off the perch until there was just one left.  Well over a year ago she was allowed out of the chook pen to free range the backyard with the dogs and the cats.  One day she decided on a weekend morning to come up the stairs, down the hall and jump up on the bed to say gidday LOL.

She hated being touched but she would chat away to me and follow me round the place.

Just over 3 weeks ago she stopped eating for 3 days, comb paled out and she was walking like she was egg bound... three days later she started eating again and while she struggled to walk she was "OK".  Then Vada bowled her over as he spun around at dinner time without looking and she didn't squawk or anything but after that she went a step backwards with walking again.  Think she broke something in there actually.  So I popped her into the big dog crate where she couldn't wander too far, was warm, soft underfoot and food and water near at hand all day long.

This morning I went downstairs to feed the zoo and she didn't talk to me :(  She died over night.  Peaceful looking death at least.  So she is now buried in the backyard, right beside the house and the chicken shit on the stairs to get upstairs will eventually fade away removing the last traces of her and while I hated her trying to roost on the stairs and would punish her and carry her down again, I will certainly miss my old girl.  Rest Easy Phoenix, you will be missed...

yes, that IS a chicken on the bed!

Meanwhile Vada is still not well, although he has moved bowels more than once now and is peeing OK, we went for a walk around the paddock just now and he did all of the above, ate some grass and FINALLY had a drink of water when we got back in... so fingers crossed he is on the mend from god knows what!  He's tucked up sleeping on my bed again, the only place he will actually lie down properly so he can rest (yep, bastard is spoiled rotten!)  So I'm on a day off babysitting him.  Fingers crossed he won't need a vet visit again now... just need to keep him drinking!