An Old Dog Welcomes Spring

Oh, the joy for the old dog to step outside and welcome another spring.

Caeli is 15 years old now, quite possibly older, and winter is hard on old dogs.

Through early winter, if temperatures stayed above freezing, she toddled along with the other Border collies on the daily trek around the pastures. The February freeze and snow put an end to that.

Old dog bodies don't hold their heat like young ones do; and arthritic feet have trouble negotiating the ice and snowdrifts. Caeli's time outdoors in February was measured in minutes.

She spent much of the month lying on the couch and grouching at Emma, the tri-colored Border collie, for breathing, for looking at her, for existing.

In the past few weeks, the snow has melted; the temperatures have warmed; and Caeli has looked longingly at the gate that leads down the driveway to the pasture.

Last week, I told the other Border collies we were doing a shorter walk and invited Caeli to come along.

She trotted behind me, her tail wagging, as the soft earth squished beneath her arthritic paws and sunlight penetrated her cloudy eyes.

 As the other dogs chased each other, wrestled, hunted mice and dug, she lowered her nose to the earth, taking in the heady smells of death and decay, new growth and hope.

I don't know when Caeli will leave this earth, but my mind goes back to that sunny fall day when my old mare was euthanized. The skies were blue; the sun was warm; the breeze was cool. In short, one of those perfect fall days.

"What a beautiful day for her last day on earth," the vet commented. 

So much better to leave this world in sunshine than rain.

And, so as I walk with Caeli, I'm grateful she made it through winter and once more felt the warm breezes and sunshine of spring.

Chick Shopping in Late Winter

Our last batch of chicks were Buckeyes (reddish-brown), Buff Orpingtons (golden) and Cuckoo Marans (black and white).

My favorite shopping event just may be Chick Days at the local feed store.

In February, the store takes chick orders, and in early April, an employee drives to the hatchery to pick up chicks.

When we first ordered Buckeye chicks from a preservation center nearly 20 years ago, the chicks arrived by mail. The postal worker called me at 6 in the morning and said my chicks had arrived, and no, I did not have to wait until 8 a.m. when the post office opened to pick them up. After the mail delays I've experienced in the past six months, I wouldn't want to risk mail-order chicks.

For years, we kept 25-30 Buckeye hens and several roosters and raised our own chicks. Sometimes hens sat on eggs. Usually, we incubated a batch of eggs as in insurance policy. This resulted in a beautifully uniform flock and hens and roosters everywhere.

And then I got sucked into Chick Days.

(Okay, keeping a breeding flock is a lot of work and resulted in more roosters, eggs and work than I wanted to deal with. And shopping for chicks is just so much fun.)

Here are the Three Truths about Chick Days

1. There are so many chicken breeds and so little time. When I walk into the feed store, I tell myself that we are only getting 12 chicks, and Randy said he wanted more Buckeyes. Then, the clerk hands me pages of chicken breeds. The number of Buckeye chicks I'd planned to order dwindles to four.

At home, we have five hens: one Buckeye, one Cuckoo Maran and three Buff Orpingtons. I like the Cuckoo Maran and her lovely chocolate colored eggs. The Buff Orpingtons have a 100 percent survival rate on the farm. Somehow these golden hens have evaded foxes and hawks. I'd get both breeds again, but there are so many other choices.

2. Egg envy is real. A few years ago, a friend opened up her carton of eggs collected from her chickens. There, in the carton were chocolate brown, tan, light green, bluish green, white and brown eggs. It was a sight to behold. At home, my carton contained uniformly brown eggs (still quite beautiful, but quite monochrome).

3. A long, gray winter makes me seek color. Our hens free range in the sheep and horse pastures. I wanted hens that stand out against the grasses.

And, in the end, I went with colorful feathers over colorful eggs. Here's what I selected:

Four Buckeyes (mahogany feathers and brown eggs)

Two French Blue Copper Marans (slate gray with copper heads and necks, and dark brown eggs)

Two Silver Laced Wyandottes (black and white feathers and brown eggs)

Two Rhode Island Blue (a cross between Rhode Island Reds and the black Astralop and brown eggs)

Two Oliver Egger (a cross between Black Maran and Americana and green eggs). 

What would you choose? If you want to see the choices, check out the Mount Healthy Hatchery catalog.