The day began after waking from a very vivid and disturbing dream about a death, a bloody face and sounds that made my skin crawl. Everything this morning checked out okay when I was out doing my chores, so I filed the dream away to be revisited later.
While inside working, I heard a strange chicken sound and when I went to the window I saw Ginger running from one spot to another, but it wasn't a panic run so I thought everything was fine. At lunch, I moved the horses to the arena and Faramir was the last to be moved. Usually the last one runs back and forth along the fence line certain that the minutes it takes me to return are hours. Instead, he was jumping, turning around, kicking and snorting all at the gate area. I watched him and thought something must be biting him or scratching him. But when I took him out and looked him over, all was fine.
Then there was another strange occurrence. It was a thump of sorts. Pippin ran, I saw Alibi in the arena looking toward the barn, and there on the gravel was a Red Tailed Hawk. What's so strange about this is that they don't fly much overhead here because I don't have pasture and grasses and I think they have better hunting elsewhere. Of course, I dropped my manure fork and went running to be sure it wasn't hurt and then prey for the dogs. Instead, it took off and I saw several of the girls tucked behind the canisters along the barn wall. Upon further inspection, I saw four feet on the other side of the barn wall so I went in to find Helen and Cinnamon. They had run for cover. Everyone seemed fine.
I returned to my poop scooping, emptied the bucket and on the way back in, I saw Shadow go to the water trough to drink and then jump back and run off. Now that was strange. And that's when I realized nothing was fine. My sweet Spice girl had fallen in the trough and drowned. My gasp got everyone's attention. It has been my biggest fear that this could happen and it's why I keep the trough as full as possible to avoid someone falling in and if it happened, they could reach the side. It's how I imagine it would go. Well, of course, the horses and goats drink and the water goes down and my guess is she went to the edge as she has been doing for almost two years, dipped down to reach the water and slipped.
Was it her I heard earlier? Was Faramir telling me something wasn't right? Was the hawk an omen?
I think I missed some signs.
While I was digging, Ginger went over to Spice and I could hear him talking to her. They were best of friends. And then as if in mourning, all the hens went to the hen house, much earlier than they usually do. Locking them in for the night broke my heart again when I realized Spice wouldn't be on the upper ledge she likes to sleep on every night.
Spice was a funny girl. She was a big talker. She would follow me around and talk. Just about every day I would pick her up and hug her and she let me. Back when she was a pullet, she was one of the first ones to jump out of their crib. And then she would wander off on her own, so independent. She and Ginger used to sleep up in the juniper tree and every night I would take them down and put them in the hen house.
And to remind me to pay attention, Bodie had some kind of feces in his hair. He never does that, that's Pinkie's M.O. When I came in, Pooker was calling but not from her cage; she had managed to fly over to the front window.
I can do without days like today.
