The Chicken That Was Not

Last week after prayer meeting, Daniela, one of our Sunday school girls, came running towards the church. She was holding a cup with tissues in it. She was out of breath as she opened up the tissues to show me what she had.

I was shocked to see what she told me was a chicken that had just hatched.

I thought it was dead...

She told me her mom was just going to throw it in the trash and asked if I wanted it. NO! I don't want it! I have terrible memories of my last baby bird going into seizures and dying - ugh, it was traumatizing. I felt bad though!! I was torn between wanting nothing to do with it, not wanting to get attached, and wanting to save it from a slow death in a garbage bin. Daniela was overjoyed when I agreed to take the bird. She ran off, happily skipping down the street to her house. I also went into my own house, sat in the recliner and with one hand started googling how to care for a baby chicken. In the other, I held the little blob against my chest. He was chirping and peeping the whole time, opening his mouth wide like he was expecting me to drop in a worm!

No feathers, no eyes - this is what helplessness looks like :/

 I fed him, wrapped him in a towel and left him on the table before going to bed. I fully expected him to die in the night. However, the next morning I lifted the edge of the towel to see him pop his head up, start chirping and do this:

FEED ME

So you can see what a tiny little squirt this guy is ^

I took him to our Sunday school meeting last week to see if anyone wanted a baby chicken. Turns out this was no baby chicken, but just a regular ole bird. Bro. Valentin told me it was the kind that squawks constantly. Sis. Elvira said, "Ohhhhhh, she's so innocent!!!!! She thought it was a CHICKEN!" Another lady told me he would surely die at any moment because he was so young. 

After hearing all of this and realizing this guy would never make it to anyone's dinner table, but only make me cry, I gave up. I turned him over to my dad as a sacrificial gift - ha. So we will not ask too many questions, but my little chicken may be back with his mommy....or maybe he is now in birdy heaven.

Daniela later fessed up and told me the whole story - she had found the bird in the road after it fell from a tree across the street from her house. Chicken, indeed.... 

~Bethany~