devastated

it's been a long while since i posted.  i hate it when bloggers say that.  

this blog is my "fun" and i always tell myself that i have to get my work done before i can edit and post photos for myself.   i've been doing a lot of work (photography -- my real work)  lately and it seems i am never caught up.  so my flash cards are full of photos of my life, my boys, and my chickens that have not been posted.  may i learn this lesson.

tonight seven of my chickens were killed by loose neighbor dogs.  we were out having an early dinner and we returned home to a back yard that looked like a massacre.  feathers and lifeless chickens everywhere.  

seven are dead.  three are missing.  tonight my coop is empty.

i am sad.  that isn't enough.  but it is true in its simplicity.  it seems silly to some people how much i enjoy my chickens.  so it will be silly to some how sad i am at their loss. i loved them in all of their chicken-ness (thanks joel salatin for that perfect sentiment). 

i worked so hard to educate myself about chickens, raise them from tiny chicks, make a home for them, care for them each day, nurse them through wounds.  i gave them a happy, simple, peaceful world to live in.  i am just devastated that they met such a violent end.  i let them down.  

tonight i lifted and carried each dead hen to her resting place.  through my tears i said "i'm sorry" to each of them.  and goodbye.  goodbye red.  goodbye flash.  goodbye lois lane.  goodbye isabella.  goodbye nico.  goodbye nellie.  goodbye singer.  we loved the time you spent here.

we have hope that we may find venus, clementine, and luna by the light of day.