When I came back out early in the morning to feed them, I couldn't find Olive. I imagined I could hear her so the whole family was outside searching through the brush outside of our front fence as I could only imagine she had flown over and was lost in there (there were no signs of foul play). We looked for two hours but found nothing. I was quite upset at having lost little Olive after helping her out of the egg and hand feeding her.
The next morning I went out as usual and swore I heard her thumping against the big coop. I start yelling "she's in the coop" as Shaun comes out to check on me ("wife finally loses it..." you know). Thought I couldn't find her in the coop, Shaun heard her as well (clearly wife hasn't lost it yet) and we scrounge around the grass on the other side of the coop next to the fence. It was a little like seeing the wicked witch of the East's red shoes sticking out from under Aunty Em's house, but there were two little yellow chicke feet sticking out of the grass...it was Olive! She had been stuck there for a day and two nights and was barely alive. We imagined that the bully in the gang, one Caramel, who is delighting at not being at the bottom of the pecking order anymore, had chased her in there.
So little Olive was rushed to the emergency ward (well, back the bathroom that she was born in) and fed through a dropper for several anxious hours (I need to get a life, don't I?). Thankfully, in 24 hours, she was back to her usual self, if only a little thinner, and was ready to go back to the big house. As I took her into the run, Gertrude went crazy - her bestie was back. As soon as I put her down in the mini hutch, as some protection from the evil Caramel, Gertrude jumped in beside her, and when they both considered it safe, they simultaneously jumped out and ran around the run, shoulder to shoulder, like two little minnows. It brough a tear to the eye....
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