And now Poppy is running after Spice, headed for the Spirit World.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

It was cold, clear, and early this morning when Wings went outside to feed the animals. When he opened the gate to the chicken coop so the chickens could come to range, he found one of them keeled over by the water bowl, dead. And now Poppy is running after Spice, headed for the Spirit World.

It could have happened very early this morning, in theory, but the sun hadn't been up long and she was in full rigor, so I suspect that it happened just before they settled down to sleep last night. Poppy was one of the five remaining Australorps, a hybrid that originates from, yes, Australia, although they're common here now. They're hardy little girls, great layers of beautiful brown eggs, and often monstrous little bullies. They also have a tendency (not a lot of them, but a statistically not-insignificant amount) to have a heart defect that causes SDS, Sudden Death Syndrome, which is essentially a heart attack, or simple heart failure (or, occasionally, a stroke). And that seems to be what happened here.

In the photo above, which is from the summer of 2018, you can see all the 'lorps scattered around. I'm reasonably sure that Poppy is the one on the right-hand seat of the picnic table. She, Peony, and Petunia have always been impossible to tell apart unless they're next to each other. The other two remaining 'lorps are Jade and Emerald, and they're both a little larger, and have black faces; the three "flower girls" all had light/pinkish faces and lighter, brighter pink combs and wattles.  Oddly, Peony and Petunia have always tended to hang together, but Poppy was a bit of a loner. I wonder now if it was simply that she always had a little more trouble keeping up. Chickens tend not to show health problems unless and until they're in real distress, and she ran around with the rest of them, so it never occurred to me to notice whether she was maybe a little slower than the others; we never had reason to suspect that she had a heart arrhythmia. 

The saving grace is that it was clearly instantaneous; she would have felt no pain, probably not had time to feel a single thing at all. But the girls are a little rattled, losing two of their own in three days. They're all out ranging now, and it's keeping them occupied.

And at eight o'clock this morning, without benefit of coffee or pain meds, either one, we were out in the bitter cold, laying Poppy to rest with everything she needed. She and Spice have probably already found each other, which will make it easier for both of them. And now we have two new chicken-sized holes in our hearts.

We love you, Poppy. You'll finally be able to fly.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.