Goodbye Sarge

Sunset over the barn

It's a feeling I never get used to... the feeling that comes over me whenever I lose a member of my farm family. No matter how many animals I've lost (and believe me, it's been a bunch...) I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that they're gone.
Gone.
Even days afterwards I'm still counting heads and missing one....

Yesterday I lost one of my favorite hens in the whole world... Sarge.
Now just for the record, Sarge was no sweet cuddly chicken who loved to be picked up and held or made on over... but she was so unique and quirky it was laughable and this endeared her to me. She was odd-looking from the beginning; she had a huge comb that made you swear at first glance she was a rooster, and beautiful dark plumage around her head and neck that gave way to golden mottled feathers on her back and bottom. But it was her personality that made her such a hoot... almost like a drill sergeant she made the other hens walk the line. There was no question who was at the top of the pecking order in her coop, and if you tried to buck the system you were rewarded with a swift peck on the head. And when I came to the coop with treats, the other hens would gleefully come running while Sarge would cock her head to the side and glance at me with one eye as if to say, "this better be good."

I was so very sad when I found the pile of beautiful feathers she had left behind in her struggle with the predator, but I had to smile when I saw another pile... then another pile... I have no doubt she put up some kind of fight, and I had to chuckle when I pictured the predator thinking to itself that she was probably the toughest piece of meat it had ever tried to devour.
Her sister and constant companion Big Bird is very silent and still today... almost as if she is missing her and waiting for her to come back.

I started to post a picture of the feathers that were left behind, but then I thought, "no, that's not fitting enough for Sarge".... so instead I'll post my favorite picture of her- the way I will always remember her, with her head tilted and giving me the "look".

Sleep tight, Sarge..... you will be missed.