One morning this week, we woke up to discover two coyotes roaming around in the pasture behind our house. In our backyard, there were feathers everywhere.
I called for Allen and he went outside and came back in shaking his head. He said there were chicken bodies everywhere. And, he couldn't find Buster.
Buster is Corbin's chicken.
Coyotes, apparently, do not come in and kill their prey to eat. Instead, they come in and just kill, leaving bodies everywhere. But, there were a few bodies missing so I guess they did take some with them.
Buster was apparently one of them.
To be sure, Allen looked everywhere, to at least find a sign of Buster's body.
He looked in all of Buster's hiding spots. She wasn't there.
Later, he found some of her feathers. So, we are pretty sure she is gone.
We lost 8 chickens and two ducks. Most of the chickens that were killed were our egg laying ones. And, they had just started laying eggs. We are left with 9 chickens. 6 of them are meat chickens. One is an egg laying and two are little bantam like chickens. One of the chickens, though, was attacked and we may have to put it down. We'll be making that decision today.
We weren't attached to the chickens. But we were all attached to Buster.
We got Buster around Corbin's first birthday. We actually got two chickens. One was killed fairly early on. For a long, long time, we thought Buster was a boy. That's why we named her Buster! But then she started popping out eggs and fooled us! Anyway, Buster was meant to be a pet for Corbin. She was meant to help teach him responsibility while also giving him his own little pet. He loved Buster. He'd pick her up and carry her around the yard. She didn't even care. He also put her in the little basket underneath the stroller and rode her around. She didn't mind that either.
Buster was special.
Buster got so comfortable with us, she would walk right in the house when we opened the door. Corbin loved it. He'd grab her and run to his room, show her around and have some serious conversations with her. Then, me or Allen would have to go in there and explain to him that chickens can't come in the house and we'd have to take her back out.
Most mornings, the first thing Corbin did was ask to see Buster.
He did that on the morning she was killed. And, we had no idea what to tell him.
He cried and cried and cried. I had to go to work and Allen would let me know how Corbin was doing. "He's still crying, asking for Buster."
Allen eventually told him that Buster went to be with Jesus and thought he'd convinced him.
But the next morning, Corbin asked for Buster again.
We are all sad. Our poor little boy is so heartbroken. We told him we'd get him another chicken but he said he wanted a frog!
I bet he'll end up getting a frog. But I bet we'll still find him another chicken.
But there will definitely never be another Buster.
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