Chicken Run

Some close friends told us a sad story recently.  They have a beautiful property nestled in the bluffs where they reside with a delightful array of other living creatures.  Theirs is an easy-living, everybody's-welcome kind of home where outside the dogs can run, the children play and the chickens roam. These gentle, kind and peaceful folks have been raising free-range chickens for a few years, providing family and friends with eggs in white and brown, all the way to Easter basket colors of pale blues and greens. When our friend would tend her garden, she said that the people-loving chickens would come to greet her and keep her company with conversations of lots of clucking and head tilting.  A few months ago, however, they found their chickens reducing in number and discovered a fat and clever raccoon as the culprit.  Since then, they've created safeguards to prevent such devastation from occurring again. Slowly, their chicken family has been multiplying, but you could still hear the sadness in their voices over the loss of their special, egg-laying companions.  We get so close to our pets, whatever they may be. When we lose them, we lose a part of ourselves.  Hopefully, next summer, our friend will have a new generation of clucking gardening friends to pass the time of day with her as she peacefully plants and weeds and harvests.