Today we had a great loss. We discovered that our black chook Hillary and our white chooks Holly and Hetty had been killed. Fortunately, Hazel had escaped the attack.
We had bought the chickens as baby chicks when Freya was only a toddler and kept them in the bathtub until they were big enough to go outside. They were such a special part of Freya and Eli's early childhood years.
But showing the strong and sometimes brutal resiliance of a child, Freya was quick to enquire if we could buy a new chicken. At first my gut reaction was to say no, it was not 'right' ... however chickens are a flock bird and we still had the welfare of Hazel to consider so it was with that thought that we agreed and set upon a mission of finding Hazel a friend.
Freya was put in charge of picking and naming the new chook. She new that it had to be a 'special' chicken to help Hazel after the loss of her friends. So that is how Freya came to be standing in a large enclosure housing about twenty odd 'point of lay' chooks and pointing out who was to become 'Coco' to the man from our local produce store.
On the way home Freya struggled to come up with a name but was insistant that she did not want any suggestions from either myself or Kevin. She was happy at the thought of asking for help from family and friends though so when we got home we asked for suggestions on Facebook and after much deliberation Freya chose 'Coco' as suggested by her Aunty Dee. It was immediately evident that Eli approved of the name as he chanted Coco, Coco, Coco over and over again!
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Hazel, Hillary, Holly & Hetty - 23rd October 2008
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