Chicken George is no more :(

We lost George. He is no longer with us. I miss that chicken. I never had a chicken before. I didn't think he would last very long but after he'd made it several days, I thought he was just an exceptional chicken, smarter than the average rooster, and just might make it. But no. He's gone. He has passed away.

I came home from work and walked up to the barn as it was getting very close to dark. George has usually ambled up to the barn to settle in for the night by then and he was no where to be found. On the way up to the barn, I noticed a small white something far out in the hayfield where George likes to hang out. Hmm. Might be George. Wasn't moving. But could just be some trash that blew onto the property. I would check the barn and see if George was there and if not, would check out the white something.

After about half an hour's worth of stall cleaning, bringing in horses, feeding and watering horses and brushing horses, there was still no George. It was eerily quiet in the barn. Part of me know George wasn't coming in tonight. I locked up the barn and walked out to the hayfield and yes, the white spot was George. I will spare you the details but we'll just say, he's gone.

I really miss that chicken. He made the place seem like a real farm. He made us laugh. He was so darn noisy that it seems soooooo quiet now. Timm says we can get another chicken but it wouldn't be the same. Because we know that unless we build a nice safe pen, the same fate will await any new chicken we bring home, and if we have a chicken in a pen, it will just be "a chicken in a pen". Most of George's personality and charm came from his wild and noisy ramblings during the day and his humble, cozy, cuddly roosting in the barn at night, all on his own free will. A penned up chicken will have none of that personality. But I don't want to feed any more chickens to whatever got my George so we'll wait and see if we have a big enough hankering for more chickens to justify the construction of a respectably safe pen.

He was a cool chicken.