Almost Nightfall and Sweetie is Missing

Sweetie had an injured foot and was favoring it quite a bit.  I wanted
to keep her in that day, but Mr. Natural over-rode me.  Sweetie is like
the Speedy Gonzalez of chickens.  She's also the one that smoked the
pavement when sliding sideways into the driveway--the one with
aspirations of being a race car driver.  So I thought it was possible and
very probable that she hurt her foot showing off.   She wasn't limping
when she took off with her sisters that morning.  But she would limp
and not even stand on the affected foot when possible.  So I was
worried; the thing I am best at when t comes to the chickens.

Evening came, and only 5 chickens came back, eager to come in.
I can barely move from the most recent fall, but I did go on the porch
and called, and called, and called.  Nothing.  Mr. Natural went up the
road calling and searching.  No luck.  I started calling even louder.  I'm
not joking when I say the chickens can't help but help but hear me;
I'm loud and high-ptiched when calling chickens.  Just when both of us
had given up, here she comes just a running!  I called out to Mr.
Natural, then to Sweetie.  I have never seen a chicken run so fast.
She is seriously into breaking speed records.  I was so relieved.

The next morning she had a foot spa--she was scared and shivering,
but trusted me just the same.  And then as she got used to the warm
water and my cleaning her feet, she nuzzled into me.  I finished by
rubbing antibiotic ointment one each foot as a preventive measure.
I am going to start putting garlic in their water to strengthen their
immune system.  I am a believer in herbs.  But I never thought about
applying that belief to chickens.

I am currently reading several books on chickens and one broke my
heart.  It told how chickens that were raised on chicken farms--just
how horribly they were treated.  I'm not going to say anything further.
If you want the info, leave a comment and I will give the name of the
book. And I can assure you, I will be a good steward of this land
and of my chickens.  They will be cared for even after they quit laying
eggs.  They trust me, and that is huge.  I won't let them down.

All for now--

Kate Thorn