Jeff's preschool chick

Recently my husband, Don, and I had a sick laying hen that we brought into our bathroom to isolate and treat. We tried to nurse her back to health for a week, and we thought she was making progress. One day I let her out into our back yard for fresh air and exercise. She walked around slowly, but eventually went back to a posture that made her look like a penguin. When Don came home, she was laying in the corner of the yard, not wanting to move at all. Knowing how attached I was to Lucy, he knew that something had to be done to put her out of her misery and he would have to be the one to do it. He finally got up enough courage to do the deed and Lucy is in a better place now.

We talked later about her and how farm life can be difficult for the soft hearted. This was the first chicken he had killed intentionally. I say intentionally because there was an incident many years back when a chicken had died in his care. He didn't actually kill that chicken, it was more a case of negligent homicide.

In a former life Don was living in Tempe Arizona with his wife at that time and 2 young stepsons. Jeff, the youngest was in preschool at the time. As part of a lesson about caring for animals, the class was raising several baby chicks. Jeff, who was somewhat "over-active" got carried away while holding on of the chicks and squeezed too hard. The teacher decided to let the punishment fit the crime and sent one of the remaining chicks home with him for the weekend with strict instructions to take good care of it and return it unharmed on Monday.

When Jeff and the chick came home on Friday, they discovered a problem. The family had a very large, also "over-active", lab mix dog named Chipper. Chipper was very interested in the chick who would have been one small bite for him. Don could just visualize what kind of scene would unfold if Chipper got hold of that chick. They put it in a box in the bathroom to keep it safe.

Everything went well until the chick jumped out of the box, up on the toilet, and plunked into the water. Luckily they were able to get it out in time and dry it off. The boys were told that it was very important that the toilet lid be closed every time they used the bathroom. Of course, telling 2 little boys to do this and having them remember to do it are worlds apart. With only 1 bathroom in the house, the lid was eventually left up. Don describes the chick as suicidal because it jumped in for a little swim again. When they found her, she was soaking wet and cold.

Don had been studying for the past couple of years to get his master's degree at Arizona State University. It just so happened that graduation was on this day. The family was racing around trying to get to the ceremony on time when the chick was discovered. They had to think fast in order to save the chick and get to the event. Don's wife, Judy, decided that the fastest way to dry out the chick and warm it was to blow dry it. After all, they had to do something to try to save the poor creature. It must have been quite a scene. Judy blow drying the chick with Don standing by in his cap and gown watching this hilarious ordeal while 2 little boys gave their input.

Luckily the chick was revived and the family made it to graduation on time. Sounds like a happy ending right there, doesn't it? Think again. The next day one of the boys again left the lid to the toilet up. The chick, determined to commit poultry suicide, took its final plunge this time succeeding.

Monday morning Don and Judy had to take Jeff to his preschool and admit that no one in the family was capable of caring for even 1 baby chick.