Pepper Takes Flight, Too.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

The pups are banished for good. They will not be allowed back.

First thing this morning, as soon as Wings let the chickens out, Coyote and Crow took off after one of the 'lorps. They got her before anyone could do anything, dragged her under the windbreak into the red willows by the house, and killed her. 

The Australorps are the solid black ones in the image above. At first I thought it was Hail, my favorite, otherwise known as PuppyGirl, because she acts just like a puppy herself. I think now it was Pepper, the one who always did a bunk if she weren't allowed out on what she considered her schedule, so she could go lay an egg in the hay barn.  

Today, she never got the chance. 

Two in two days is not any kind of acceptable record. Now that they've coded chickens as prey, it's not undoable, at least not for the kind of time and resources we have to devote to that sort of deprogramming. Unfortunately, it means that they will no longer be as well fed, but we've given them a pretty healthy start. That will have to be handled by someone else now.

A day that I was going to devote to so many things again started off with a tiny burial. Pepper is next to Sienna, and her spirit is on its way — no doubt flying, like the chickens in A Wish for Wings That Work, in a way she could never manage in life. Like her sister, she has everything she needs for her journey, and since Sienna had only a day's head start, I imagine she and Pepper will find each other somewhere along the road and travel together the rest of the way. 

That's two that I have failed, and terribly so. I can't forgive myself for it; they deserved better than this. [If it turns out that the one I believe to be Hail, running around the back of the coop, is actually Pepper instead, I will be more even heartbroken than I am now, because Hail has been my girl. That's not saying much, though, because right now, My heart hurts with an actual physical pain beyond what I've felt since November.] But Pepper was feisty and utterly independent of mind and spirit. She was also not far down the favorite list, simply because of that independent streak. I could always count on her to wait until after everyone had been put in for the night to sneak out, or to find a way out early in the morning. I once caught a shot of her balanced on the razor-thin edge of the chicken wire in the back, so I know how she was getting out. Making it higher didn't do any good; she was resourceful, to say the least.

And she will always have that same spot in our hearts. 

We love you, Pepper, and I'm sorry, baby girl.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.