Big Surprise

Deb and Craig called yesterday and said they were going to make a "fly by" trip up, and that they had something for me.  Knowing they'd been camping for a week and had just gotten home and that they were coming up next weekend, I told them to wait and save the "whatever" until then.  It's a long trip and I knew they were tired.  "No, we can't.  It's perishable."  Hmmm.  Pizza?  Flowers?  Of all the things I might have thought of, my surprise was great when they drove up and presented four Silkie chicks!  I've always wanted Silkies, but felt they were an extravagance; luxury chickens, as it were.  These chicks come with a story.  It seems there was a flock of Silkies at the campground, but they had no water and the wrong kind of food...Deb knows about these things because of her association with my flock.  She and Craig decided to rescue as many as they could, and were given four.  My big-hearted kids (with Craig's mother's permission, I have claimed him as one of my own) drove all over hell and gone in the hinterlands, finding a store where they could outfit the chicks, and also food and waterers for the chickens they had to leave behind.  These little guys/girls (??), as yet unnamed, will be Stumpy's roommates until they're big enough to join the flock.  Bess and Pearl are checking out the new kids on the block.  Frank just said, "Oh, God...she's gone and done it again," and wandered off.  Bessie Anne wouldn't hurt the chicks, but she does like to boink the cage to watch them flutter and yerp.  As Deb and Craig were leaving, we discovered that, just like Ginger in "Chicken Run," Stumpy had made a Great Escape, aided by the ground squirrels who had created an opening under the edge of her pen, and was galloping around with the rest of the free rangers.  Craig plugged the holes, and Stumps was sent back to The Cooler. 

I thank Deb and Craig for my Silkies, and I thank God for my dear kids...all my kids.  Tomorrow is Mothers' Day...all mothers should be as lucky as I.