If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, Austin LOVES his chickens. They give him a sense of pride & ownership. A desire to be responsible to something that is solely dependent on you. This is a lesson that I could never have taught & produced the same results.
Austin could almost single handedly take care of his chickens. He's great with the other animals on our farm too. But there's something special about those chickens.
We all know that life is hard & anything but fair. But that is hard to explain to a 10 year old boy with so much love in his heart.
Austin came in the house a little while ago & said he had to kill one of his roosters. Of course, we immediately wanted to know why. Well, it seems that this rooster was being picked on by the other roosters. The scene he described was horrible.
Graphic warning inserted here.
The rooster was bloody, missing feathers. He had numerous cuts around his neck. One eye was pecked out. He also had a whole in the back of his head where part of his brain was coming out.
Austin tried to kill it with a shovel, so unfortunately it wasn't quick.
He didn't say much else. You could see the tears that he refused to let fall shining in his eyes and you could hear the words on the verge of breaking when he did speak. I told him how sorry I was & how brave & responsible he was.
Even though Austin is growing up way too fast, those few moments of sorrow reminded me that he is still only a 10 year old little boy.
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