Loss

It's been 21 long, sad weeks since we lost Agnes and Ripley. I honestly cannot say I feel any less sad about it now than I did then. I am absolutely gutted, and even though I'm no longer crying every day, I still miss them constantly, my heart aches with loneliness and sometimes I can't even breathe from the loss. 

After Robert, they were the next most important thing in my life. They always made me happy when I was sad or depressed, and always kept me company when I was alone. The simple, unconditional love only pets can give. 

For so long, the thought of new chickens made me feel ill. No matter how many people said new pets would make everything happier and better I wasn't interested. I understood it wouldn't be replacing Agnes and Ripley, but it still just felt wrong. I was not ready to move on.

However, I could not deny that a week and a half off work for Easter was a perfect time to start bonding with new chicken friends. So now we have three new friends, well, technically one friend, a mildly interested party and another who hates us. It'll be an interesting journey.

When Agnes and Ripley were the cutest baby chickens of all time I started a photo log of their progress, week by week. It was fascinating watching how they developed week to week. However Lumi, Greta and Harriet are all adult chickens, they're not going to change all that much, and certainly not quickly. I wondered how best to record this period of our lives. 

I feel this will be the best method to track our journey to be one cohesive flock. Here I can gush about each new achievement and step towards them trusting us, rather than bore the pants off individual friends. 

This is mostly just a record for me, perhaps someone will stumble upon it and maybe find something to help them befriend their new adult chickens.