& just like that…
anne nixon-ellery
the happy story has to end. The joy, amazement, the miracle of it all.
Elizabeth Taylor was an amazing mum, so dedicated. She sat on those eggs all day & night leaving them twice a day to drink, eat & have a quick dust bath. I actually thought for a while that maybe the eggs weren’t viable & Richard & Eddie were firing blanks… but then came the heart exploding happy day when there were 5 chicks!! - so tiny & perfect & in awe of their mum!
I watched them being called & looked after… Taken to drink in a secluded spot, keeping up as best they all could - until this awful day…
There were feathers… I followed the trail, hoping to find Elizabeth injured so she could get better & be the perfect mum again. But the trail was long & then there were more than feathers.
Why did this have to happen? Why did ‘you’ have to take her? I know that she was defending her babies & paid the ultimate price. The price that any mum would make in place of her baby.
Nature never ceases to amaze & disgust me, so clever, raw, cruel… unforgiving.
The next few hours were spent finding the chicks… they had to be there ~ Elizabeth can’t have died for nothing… please.
Muiltiflora ripped at us, but I didn’t care, it was almost welcomed to stifle the heartbreak. We found 4. The fifth sadly didn’t make it.
Mike set them up on our porch in a brooder & we will do our very best to raise them.
