Meet Sprinkle

When I was about seven years old, my brother and I surprised our parents by buying four baby chicks at the local W.T Grant store. Being Easter it was very common to find chicks at all the local stores. We bought ours for twenty five cents each. We lived in the suburbs then so the folks were not perfectly happy with our purchase. We thought we had died and gone to Old McDonald heaven. They were so cute and soft. But this brings me to Sprinkle. This past Easter my daughter, who is well beyond the age where she should know better, bought Sprinkle at a local feed store. We were not excited because we know that chicks grow into chickens. We also know her history of taking care of her pets which now include, a sugar glider, a mouse, a turtle, fish, a dog, three cats and Sprinkle. We end up doing a lot of the work. Taking care of a chicken is much different than taking care of a cat. Chickens need constant attention and they have a tendency to poop a lot right where they are standing. Although the stereotype of a chicken scratching is very true, they have not learned to bury their messes. We did set up a temporary coop outside, but found out the first night that it was not secure when Sprinkle almost bought the farm courtesy of the neighbor’s puma sized cat. But you know we have all kind of fallen in love with the little McNugget. She is very affectionate and comes when she is called. We’re still not sure what to do with her though. I do remember my brother and I were shocked to learn later exactly what “gone to live on the farm” meant for our four full grown chickens. -Kendall