12 May 2009

I had a run in, run around and run down

Bertha has joined her sisters in that great coop in the sky. She hadn't been feeling well so Meg took her to the vet where we learned the little girl had cancer. Apparently cancer is common with egg laying chickens. You gotta figure they're reproducing cells on a large scale, daily, and I guess all it takes is that one freak cell to ruin the whole works.

The vet said that she had about a week to live; so a decision was made to stop the suffering and at around 11:30 today Bertha was put to sleep.

For those of you who have been hangin' out with us, you know that our chickens were all named after Grateful Dead tunes. This is the last of our three little tributes.



We're retiring the chicken tag for a while. Where we're moving (holy shit, I almost forgot, we closed on our house last Friday) chickens are on the city's "not cool" list. We still plan to build our own farm someday and when that time comes the tag will be dug out and dusted off.

Our semesters are coming to a close soon, so be prepared for a fresh new season of FHF. Cheers all.

10 comments:

Laurel said...

Oh No! What a sad day. Poor Bertha - Great tribute though.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about Bertha. It's never fun to end the life of a animal in your care, but good for you for giving her the best life possible and treating her right up to the end.

I love your blog and look forward to future posts! Good luck on the move.

Kate@LivingTheFrugalLife said...

Sorry to hear about Bertha. Sounds like she had a good life.

Congrats on closing on the house. Have you started gardening there already? Looking forward to seeing what you do with that backyard. Tom's hops have just started coming up. He's pretty excited about it. I think he's *finally* catching gardening bug. I'm planting popcorn and potatoes today.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

so sorry about bertha. but she was loved. i can't wait to see how the new place comes along. will you be posting it? joyce

our friend Ben said...

Poor bertha, and poor you all---no chickens!!! (Gasp.) But who'd have thought chickens got cancer?! that's news to me. And oh, congrats on the closing!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about Bertha, but as others noted, she had a great life, for a chicken! Some serious good karma going on fer her to have ended up with you two!

Congrats on the house! There is something fabulous about being a homeowner. Until the toilet stops working.

Ali

jeff said...

RIP Bertha.

gustoso said...

Oh no. What a cute tribute though.

CatHerder said...

So sorry to hear about Bertha....good luck in the new home, so sorry that chickens are not cool with your town...theyre not here either. Funny how they wont allow a few little egg laying pets, when they will allow the drug dealers to have 10 vicious pitbulls...amazing

Jen said...

Sorry to hear about Bertha. As a self proclaimed Deadhead, I think that was a great tribute to the band to have the chickens named after their songs. Good luck with the move and love the blog.
~Jen