How is my heart still functioning?
It's been broken so many time this year.
We let Walle go yesterday. She had been sick for the last 2 weeks. She started to molt quite drastically and later than usual. The stress of the molt weakened her body and she started showing neurological issues. We brought her inside and started treating her for Marek (she came from a school hatching project and wasn't vaccinated). At first she responded well to the meds, but then crashed. She stopped eating, and when the food we were tube feeding her wasn't moving through her system anymore, we knew it was time.
It is so hard to make end of life decisions, even when you know it's the best thing to do. And then it's impossibly hard to say goodbye.
Walle was pretty awesome. She came to our micro-sanctuary at the beginning of the year after being badly injured by a predator. After her recovery, when she joined the rest of the flock outside, she immediately bonded with Sophie and Lucie, the turkeys. She was super social and loved people's attention. She came with me to summer camps showing kids how cool chickens are.
She is gonna be missed. A lot.
