Today i walked past a room suddenly disheveled and in the process of packing. My heart dropped through my feet and i stood frozen. Staring at the balled up sheets mounded on the recliner. Staring at the boxes of personal items. Staring at the bare mattress. I felt the lump in my throat and the …
Tag Archives: death
Update on the Coyote Carcass
The buzzards are done with it. There’s been a couple heavy rains since it was killed so the fur and the hide got soggy and matted and now it just stinks to high heaven. The remaining skin shriveled and revealed an impressive set of pearly white teeth. Further Update: The carcass has had a little …
A Dead Coyote
When i left the property before dawn there was no dead coyote beside my neighbor’s fence. When i returned home around 2:30 pm there was a dead coyote and about 16 buzzards tipping the carcass apart. one of the birds had a bit of it in its beak and was pulling it east while another …
Daisy’s Death
This is Daisy, my favorite chicken. Ironically i cried more with Petunia but that has to do with the fact that she was suffering terribly and i had to kill her to put her out of her misery when i raised her from a day old chick and i couldnt fathom my body ending the …
Death in the Chicken Pen
Ever since i integrated the pullets into the chicken pen the chickens had been bullying the newbies, as chickens do. The pullets, afraid of the chickens, roosted each night in between the tarp covered fence of the pen and the side of the chicken coop. I kept telling them they’d get stuck here and predators …
Sula
There was no evidence of deer in the yard for 3 or 4 days, despite me leaving watermelon rind and the chicken scratch being everywhere the chickens flung it. There was no poop, no tracks, and no indentations in the dirt where they slept at night. Sula and her youngest daughter “Little One” were gone. …
Losing Petunia
Losing Petunia brought on a very painful realization for me. I couldnt look at my chickens as children. I mean, to a certain extent, i could, but i needed to plan for the reality that these birds weren’t going to live forever. Chickens get sick. Chickens develop various health problems. Chickens succumb to predators. I …
A Dream of Death
I was leaving the house at 4 am every morning so i could get to the nursing home at 4:50, take a ten minute nap in the car, and go in to assist patients with dressing and toileting tasks while they got ready for breakfast. At the time i was worried about somebody and they …
A Black Swallowtail named “Blue”
I was outside working in the yard one day when i noticed a pop of color underneath the car. It was a butterfly! I was immediately terrified i’d run him over or hit him with the grill of the car earlier when i’d parked, since that was where i found him, beneath the front of …
I Know Why the Old Tree Died.
I had seen the old tree in the employee parking lot of my former job and noted that it wasn’t doing very well but i didn’t think anything of why. It wasn’t my tree. I wasn’t sure what circumstances it had lived through. so i never gave much thought as to why it was struggling …