buffy

buffy is back in the house tonight.  poor thing.  she's been in and out for a week, battling a nasty sinus infection that's left her pale, thin and lethargic.  i offered her some fresh corn and blueberries (her favorite) when i came home, but she wasn't interested.  i gave her a shot of baytril and put her in a cage in the den to sleep (while i watched the nba playoffs - go lakers!).  buffy's a white cochin bantam - basically, a miniature chicken.  i don't know whether she's going to make it, but she's been fighting for a week so i'm not counting her out just yet.

i knew nothing about chickens before we moved here.  a few months after we arrived,  james and i found a skinny old rooster walking down the side of the road in the rain and adopted him. our local hardware store sells baby chicks, so one thing led to another and soon the rooster had a flock of 6 hens.  now, after several hatches and a few adoptions, we have 34 standard chickens, 12 bantams and more eggs than we can possibly eat.  our latino neighbors say our chickens remind them of life in mexico.  hopefully, in a good way.

hens remind me of teenage girls.  they form cliques, and do everything together in groups. the cliques tend to run along color lines, with all the same-colored birds flocking together and the one-offs forming a separate group.  hens will snub anyone who's not in their group and like to perch next to their best friends at night.  they complain alot, like to sunbathe, take naps and preen.  

chickens aren't very compassionate.  in fact, compassion seems to be lacking in the animal world as a whole.  guess i could have tuned to animal planet for that bit of news.  don't know why i find it surprising.  birds will pick on the weak and ill, which is why it's so hard to tell when one is sick or injured.  they'll hide their suffering until they're nearly at death's door.  at the same time, they can be surprisingly resilient, courageous in the face of pain, and occasionally very brave.  

i wish i had noticed buffy's condition sooner.  under her fluffy feathers, she's very thin (she probably only weighs a pound or so).  i'm hoping the baytril will do the trick.