Remembering Sasha

Last night, Sasha the chihuahua passed away from congestive heart failure. Sasha was a surprise gift from us to Danna (Dionne's mom) in 1996. I remember the look of shock on Danna's face when we first told her we had a "Mother's Day surprise" for her---she thought we were going to say we were pregnant! And like a new child, Sasha always received royal treatment; she wore sweaters in the wintertime, ate her share of hamburgers, had her feet wiped after walking in wet grass and was granted the right to sleep on the bed inside her very own pillowcase. I used to carry Sasha around in my pocket when she was little (granted I wore some pretty baggy shorts in '96), but Sasha never let the big dogs boss her around, despite being the runt of her litter. She is pictured here in a photo from Thanksgiving 2007. Good dog.

4 and 5 Didn't Thrive

Hatchlings 4 and 5 were born this morning, but sadly did not stay with us. One was found lifeless in the nest, possibly crushed or born with some sort of internal defects. The other was born with its yolk sac on the outside of its body, having failed to draw it back within itself before finally hatching (they do this so as to feed off of the nutrients for the first few days of life outside the shell). After some attempts to remedy the fatal oddity, the chick was euthanized. There are three eggs remaining and they've been moved to our incubator in the garage. If they don't hatch within the next few days, we'll probably end up burying them.

A Better Mousetrap

This past weekend we woke up to find two dead field mice floating in the chicken's water bowl which was left out overnight. The water level was low so we assume the mice came to drink, fell in, and couldn't get out. Not the most humane way to kill mice, but no pesticides either. We tossed the mouse corpses into the woods but then remorse turned to hilarity as a chicken chase ensued with the hens competing with each other for the novelty prize (don't worry, they didn't eat the mice). In case you'd like to try this yourself, the bucket wasn't anything special...something like this:

R.I.P. Dalmation Temptation

Sad news. Our one and only Silver Laced Wyandotte died. Dionne went out to collect eggs around 2pm on April 4th and she was laying there in the coop. She was fine in the morning, but had been dead for a little while because rigormortis had begun to set in. Dionne checked the inside of her mouth and it wasn't black, so we don't think it was worms or coccidiosis or anything harmful to the rest of the flock (who have been absolutely fine). Her lower abdomen was swollen and her oviduct was slightly expanded, so we think Dalmation was eggbound...this can cause a quick death if not caught early. Maya was pretty upset, of course, and Dalmation (whose was named for her black and white Dalmation-style spots and a word that rhymed with "dalmation") was buried in the backyard of the cottage complete with stones and flowers to mark the grave. We initially referred to this hen as "mystery chick" since she was of a different breed than the rest. Dalmation is pictured above with wildflowers sprinkled on her back's "bald spot" courtesy of the kids.