Introductions

Emma took no time in naming our little fluffy pets. She's been into Greek mythology lately (thanks to those Percy Jackson books), and the chicks names reflect that. We have Selene, Athena, and Pan. We also have Pig, who is named that because she seemed a bit of a pig initially. She now seems to be the littlest of the four.

Here's Emma explaining who's who.

Chicks in da House

One of my big concerns with getting chickens is how our other animals would react to them. We've got 2 dogs and a cat (and a snake and some fish, but I wasn't too worried about them). Darrel said "It'll be fine." He says that whenever I express worry about anything. It'll always be fine.

So far, it's been fine. Jack (our border-collie mix) sniffs them a bit, then seems a bit freaked out and leaves quickly. Carmella (our cat) seemed more interested in the box than in the chicks. Rose (our poodle-maltese mix) is the only animal that shows any real interest. She will sit and watch them for minutes at a time, even when no one else is around their box. They've gotten pretty used to her too.

Below are some chicken/dog videos for your viewing pleasure.

A Chicken Christmas

The 2009 holiday season will forever be known in Rodriguez-Mayers family lore as The Christmas The Chickens Came.

A little background:

Darrel has wanted chickens ever since we moved into the 23 (as the hipsters are calling our neighborhood now, apparently) 12 years ago. He grew up with chickens and has fond memories of them. I didn't grow up with chickens, and assumed that they were noisy, smelly and annoying. When he insisted they weren't, I figured that since the house he grew up in sat on many acres of land, he probably just didn't notice it - they were most likely kept far away from the house. He continued bringing up the idea of having a little flock of our own, and Emma soon joined his side of the debate. I remained strong, however. Until, the Guinta-Moore family got chickens.

GG (Isabella) Guinta is Emma's best friend, and her family lives in Hyde Park. About 2 (?) years ago they got 4 chickens. They were little baby chicks, ordered on-line and send through the mail. Who knew? Emma fell madly in love with them, and, through spending lots of time at GG's, became an expert handler. Seeing Emma with a chicken sitting in her arms, my defenses weakened a bit. When we were told by Elizabeth and Weston that they were good pets, fun to watch and interact with, and not all that stinky, smelly and annoying, I began rationalizing. We do have a large back yard. It'd only be 4 chicks, max. I do LOVE birds, and will never be allowed by Darrel to have a conjure or a parrot, so maybe I should settle for chickens. OK, OK, we'll get chickens!

2 years later, we were still talking, but doing nothing, about it. In early December, Darrel came up with the idea of getting some chicks for Emma for Christmas. I tried to reason with him, and assumed he'd either forget about it or realize it was a crazy idea. He did not. He found out that Callahan's here in Austin sells baby chicks - some as young as a week old. He also found out that they'd need to stay in the house for the first 4 to 6 weeks of their lives, so we wouldn't need a coop yet. He brought 4 baby chicks home on Christmas Eve day while Emma and I were walking the dogs. We hid them in the music room, and assumed that Emma would hear them peeping away. She didn't. She thought we had bought her a new bed and that's what we were trying to hide.

Christmas morning came with the secret still only known to Darrel and myself. My folks were in town too, and we hadn't told them either. We opened all our presents that morning, and then blindfolded Emma. We led her into the music room, placed her next to the box and took off the blindfold. "OHMYGOD! CHICKENS!!!" She then squealed and laughed in a higher pitch than I've ever heard come out of her mouth. She couldn't believe it. Best. Christmas. Ever.


They are adorable. Tiny and fluffy and sweet and precious. We are all desperately in love with them.