Jake is the baby of the family. Although he is six years old, he is still the baby. I will admit that the baby of the family is a bit spoiled. Not just in my family, but I assume all families. With 2 other kids running around I just wanted to anticipate his needs and meet them when he was a small baby. I didn't want or have time to hear crying. I wasn't the only one. We all did it. The brothers are just as guilty of giving in so he didn't get mad or cry or throw a fit. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, but six years later it doesn't look or sound quite as appealing. Never the less, it still happens. The kid asks for something and he usually gets it. If he doesn't, a bit of crying will most likely occur.
That paragraph was just for me to admit my errors on public record. Now on with the post....
Jake's kindergarten hatched eggs this year (see older post). The teacher sent out an email and asked all the families if they wanted to have a chick or two. I really didn't, so I deleted the email. Then Jake came home from school and begged. He promised to care for them 100% without complaint, on the first parent request. I said that I didn't know how to take care of chickens so that wasn't going to work. Jake, being the brilliant kid that he is, suggested that I look it up on the Internet. Fine. Problem 1 solved.
I then told him that they stink and could fly. He told me that right now they were so cute, small and fluffy. I told him I knew that, but that they would grow up into real, live, egg producing chickens. He promised that we could just keep them until they grew up. Problem 2 solved.
I then told him that it would cost a lot of money for food and a home for them. Jake offered up his allowance and life savings of $24.00. Problem 3 solved.
I told him that we couldn't really get another pet since Derek's dog Cupcake was so noisy and needy. Derek finally decided that she would be best with a middle-aged couple that would give her a lot of attention, if and only IF we got the chicks. Problem 4 solved and the crazy, high-pitched barker was outta-here!
So, I said yes to the spoiled baby and we got 2 chickens. I said we could keep them until they fly and only until they could fly.
We all kept up our agreements and Jake paid for, fed, watered and cared for the chicks, without complaint.
I allowed the chickens.
And best of all Cupcake moved to Jim & Betty's! It was one of the happiest days of my life.
What none of us realized was how fast those little chicks were going to grow. We ended up only having them for about 2 weeks before they had lost most of their cute fuzz and begun to use their wings to fly up and across the box. They also pooped a lot and so the boys didn't want to hold them. I can't blame them. The last straw was that they moved too fast to be easily caught.
Without much despair, the chickens went to live at "The Stock Shop", where Anthony was paid $9.00 for those adolescent chickens, who, by the way, were named Puffy and Fluffy.
Puffy was Carsen's chicken. It had 2 dark spots on the top of it's head. Jake's was Fluffy and it was more solid in color.
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