Lucy's Eulogy

Today I called all my hens over for what I knew would be their last meal with Lucy, who lay cold and stiff 18 inches below. They all then supped on her favorite snack, sunflower seeds.

Lucy was the smartest of them all. She knew how to choose her battles and always kept her wits about her. She would come when called, let me pick her up and pet her, and laid small but beautiful light blue eggs. I loved her.

I will miss our morning snack ritual the most. Lucy would hang back at my feet and look at me expectantly when the others had taken off for a handful of sunflower seeds. ''Here you go little Loolie" I would croon while I bent down to discreetly place some seeds where only she could see them. I had to do this or Lucy, as the lowest in the pecking order, would get no seeds and a lot of abuse.

Today was the first day they all ate together peacefully. My final words to her were ''We all loved you Lucy, even though some of us pecked you nearly to death yesterday."

I thought I lost Lucy to a predator not long ago and here is a link to that post: https://steemit.com/homesteading/@owasco/rip-lucy-she-was-a-really-good-chicken. Turned out she was just missing for a few hours, probably traumatized from having escaped death. This time was the real deal.