My sweet little puff

by Lexi
(Iowa)

I had gotten Puff from the farm store I work at. A customer had come over to me concerned that one of the little meat chicks wasn’t doing too well and pointed out Puff.

She was smaller than the palm of my hand and was hardly moving. She had her head down and was constantly getting stepped on by the much bigger chicks in the tub. When I brought one of the other associates who is a chicken farmer over to look he said she didn’t have long to live.

Now I don’t know anything about chickens or how to raise them but I knew I wanted to take her home instead of leaving her to keep getting pecked and stepped on. I bought her and the supplies necessary to keep her comfortable for her last few days.

We had a plan in place in case she did survive to send her to a sanctuary once she got stronger, (due to me living in a no pet apartment complex I wouldn’t have been able to keep her.) When I got her home I set up her own little living area and was able to get her to drink a few drops of water.

Things were looking up as she had started drinking and had been moving more then she had before I bought her. My boyfriend and I pet her and loved on her before going to bed.

Midway through the night I got up to check on her and she was laying in her bedding breathing but not responding to petting or any sort of noise like she had earlier in the night. I knew that in the morning I was going to have to take her to the vet and decide if euthanasia was the best choice since she’s hadn’t eaten in a very long time and had only drank so little.

Early this morning, Puff took her final breath, unlike most of these stories I didn’t have Puff for very long, less than a day.

But she holds a special place in my heart as the only chicken I’ve ever taken care of. It may have been reckless and dumb to take in an animal so last minute and with no prior knowledge but I wanted her to be loved and comfortable when she went.

Thank you Puff for being such a sweet little chick.