Very sad day. Comet the dog got to our chickens.

I don’t even want to post this, because we are all so very sad here in our family.

We lost Sweetie our chicken yesterday evening, the one that my youngest son loved so very much. My children and I were in tears all night after losing her. It just makes me sick.

My husband had worked on our chicken coop and the bottom half was all finished up. He had yet to make the house that goes on top of it all, but every day we had been taking our chickens out to the coop to let them stretch their legs since the bin they are in was so small.

The chickens loved it in there, prancing around happily. But our dog Comet would circle around it trying to get at them. We thought it was safe.

Well yesterday my two youngest went inside the coop with the chickens. While they were inside the dog Comet broke the gate off the hinges by pushing it with all his weight.  I was inside the house and came running when I heard the screams of my children.

But it was too late.  By the time I had gotten there, Comet had already killed Sweetie and was working on Roxie. I quickly grabbed him by the collar and drug him into the house, locking him in a bathroom.

Then went outside to see the damage. My kids were screaming and crying and there was poor lifeless Sweetie, lying in the grass. She was the unlucky one whom Comet got to first. The one my littlest son loved more than anything in the world.

I asked the kids where Roxie was (our other 2 chickens were safe in the garden).  Roxie was found  lying under a bush frozen in terror and shock. We picked her up,  brought her right into her bin in the garage with the heat lamp on and laid her down. She wasn’t moving at all, just breathing and limp.

After a few hours my oldest son and I washed her wounds (she had two big gashes) and put some neosporin on them. We gave her some droppers of water, and he held her until it was bedtime.  

Roxie is my oldest sons chick. He loved her very much. We said a prayer for her hoping she would get better.

Then we all went outside and buried Sweetie under a bush.

Because of all the trauma my two youngest experienced by watching our dog Comet kill their very dear chickens whom they loved, they were so upset at bedtime. I had to sleep all night with my son who woke up and cried many times throughout the night over the loss of his Sweetie.

Then this morning we woke up to find that Roxie didn’t make it through the night either. She went to heaven to be with Sweetie.

More tears today.

I feel like my little country dreams are getting taken from me, and it hurts. I am so mad at my dog Comet, even though I know it’s just his nature to do it. It seems like he is just so much trouble; first with my garden – eating all my vegetables, and now with my chickens. But I feel also a sense of responsibility to him too because he is our family dog. It is what it is.

I know I shouldn’t feel as bad about losing the chickens, because, well..they are chickens. But I loved the little dears so much. I raised sheep growing up and experienced death back then a lot, so I learned to not get too attached then. But I think in all my excitement of having my country dreams come true, I fell in love. So I am sad today.   The kids are going through their first experience of death which was a good time to teach them more about heaven, but I still wish we didn’t have to go through this.

This is the country life I suppose; the good and the bad, life and death.

Rest in peace Sweetie and Roxie. We miss you both so much.