Little Lost Hen

Our Buff Polish hen seems to be lost. We let her and her Golden Polish cousin out to play, and when we weren't looking, we discovered that Woodstock was gone. We searched for hours in the woods, up and down the roads, in the neighbors yards - everywhere. We are all just sad.

I know she is just a chicken and if you want to be a real farmer, you shouldn't get attached to your animals. But we aren't real farmers, we just love animals. The boys name them all and handle them quite a bit.

Woodstock was also very special to us because in the fall, some possums broke into the chicken yard and killed two hens, and left Woodstock for dead. She was barely breathing, very bloody and had lost her entire tail feathers (OUCH!). We put her in isolation and nursed her back to health. It took weeks before we were even certain she was going to live, and months before her tail feathers grew back. It was pitiful, yet victorious because she lived, and she has even laid many an egg for us over the last few months.

I wish we could find out what happened to her today. We never found one feather indicating she was snatched by an opportunistic hawk. I feel very down trodden knowing she is either dead or alone in the dark......... I wonder if that is how God feels when one of us is lost??? No, I imagine that feeling is MUCH worse.