Hanaeleh will soon be the home to two new baby chicks. They were the product of a kindergarten teacher who thought that hatching chickens would be a good lesson to teach her class. There are so many aspects of this continued practice that I can say are just awful, but one of the most disturbing ideas is the concept that we are teaching our children that animals are somehow disposable; that it is perfectly OK to bring a life into the world to see the “wonderment of life,” and then, once that is done, it is OK to throw the life away.
These two chicks were born with deformed feet. The teacher decided that no one would want them because of their deformity, and was going to give them to a pet store for snake food (full disclosure- I don’t understand keeping snakes as pets. Personally, I think snakes really are best left to the wild). Our neighbor rescued them, not sure who would be able to take them, but knowing that the little chicks didn’t deserve to die just because they weren’t “perfect.” If they were in pain or were suffering, I might have a different perspective, but the only issue with these two is their toes are turned in. So when our neighbor asked me if I could take them, I honestly could not say no.
In keeping with tradition, the chicks are living in my bathroom (my dogs are annoyed that I refuse to allow them in there to hunt), and do not know how close they were to being killed merely because they were a little different. Their deformity does not seem to bother either one, and they seem to get along very well in spite of their off foot (they are fast little buggers, as I discovered when they jumped off the couch while we were watching television and began tearing around my living room. Luckily I had put the dogs in the other room, but even still it took me 10 minutes to catch them).
They will stay inside until they have enough feathers so they can live comfortably outside (as they still have their fuzz, they not only need to be inside, but also need to have a lamp on them). When they are old enough, we will introduce them to Serena and Ursula.
Oh, and they are named Clara and Esmerelda, in keeping with the tradition of naming the chickens from characters in Bewitched. Unless one is a boy, in which case he’ll be named Darren.
Most people don’t know that chicks like to watch television.
The chicks will fall asleep almost instantly when being held.