Red Recondite

Say hello to Helen.

She is perched outside of the chicken pen.  She is blind.

Last weekend, the Michigan weather had warmed up considerably (considerably for Michigan), and it was above freezing.

As the sun rose in the sky, my father opened the large door to the chicken pen.  The chickens gradually wandered out, and mingled about outside for the afternoon.  They enjoy wandering about the yard.  Surprisingly, the cats don’t bother them at all.

As afternoon darkened to evening, my father herded them back into the pen.  Alas, one of the chicken’s poked its head outside for another second, and was subsequently rewarded by having its head squished quite thoroughly as my father swung the large door shut.

For reasons that remain unclear, my mother took it upon herself to care for this chicken.  She set up a small box in the basement for it to stay in, and fed it milk.  As the days went by, she grew more attached to it, and even gave it a name: Helen.

Alas, Helen cannot see, and is a rather daft.  She responds to sounds and touch, but primarily spends her time standing in one spot, turning around in circles.  She will not eat for herself, and my mother must feed her milk.

As you can see, Helen isn’t looking so well.  One of her eyes is missing, and one is very cloudy.  Her crown is blackened and flaccid.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Investigation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.