kittenmmm's blog post - softie

I am. I'll admit it. I can be quite hard when I need to be but in general I'm a softie.

I went out to take care of the chicks today and found I had lost about 9 or 10 of them. It got VERY cold here last night and I think the configuration I had set up for them just didn't give them enough heat. I thought they were feathered enough to have a reduced heat but I hadn't thought about how cold it would get in there last night.

Anyway, of the chicks that were marginal there was one of the babies...they had hatched about two weeks ago. It had gotten wet and was obviously suffering the effects of that combined with the chill in the air. I took it out of the cage and put it directly under the heat lamp. By the time I was done feeding the other animals it had revived enough to be ravenous. This is of course always a good sign.

I kept looking at it...thinking if I put it back in it would be picked on and I would probably be minus a chick by morning. I made an executive decision and decided to bring it in. Besides, I reasoned, I had raised Sam in the house and she was such a joy to me while I had her. So in I came, chick in hand and a container of feed. My son laughed and held it in his lap while I found a box, a lamp and a dish for water.

The poor little bugger is still all matted from getting wet and trampled on but it's eaten well and is resting right behind my chair in its box with the lamp on it. It clucks at me when I pet it. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be attempting to clean off its feathers and will be a little more active. Here's hoping...and maybe it'll be just a joy like Sam was.

softie kitten
xxx