Clementine

by Kara Dawdy
(Thornton, Colorado)

Clementine was delivered to us on Valentine's Day at 7 weeks old. I asked my youngest son to pick a name for her and he chose Clementine because of the holiday.

Clementine was our first Barred Rock and she was so pretty and gentle. She and her coop mate Molly (Buff Orpington) grew up very quickly together, cuddled together to keep warm and stayed by each other's side, especially when they were moved into the big coop.

She enjoyed foraging on grass and eating earthworms that daddy would pull up from the ground with a shovel.

She was enjoying eating her breakfast with her other new friends and Molly the morning mama saw her last, but by that afternoon something unexplainable had suddenly gone wrong and Clementine passed on over the Rainbow Bridge.

She wasn't yet 18 weeks old, she was so excited to start eating the big hen food that helps with laying eggs, she never got to lay an egg. She was also so excited to grow a big red comb and wattles and enjoy the summer, she had only known the cold winter days and the early spring.

She is free now, not stuck behind wire, and I hope wherever she is that she can fly as high and far as she wants.