I work in catering. For a church. The run-up to the winter holidays is always wild from about mid November. But this year? Oof! From the end of August on we had event after event, on top of training three new members of staff.

We lost Isaac, our ten year old rabbit, in September, to a long illness that no one could diagnose. We needed a buddy for Mac, so adopted a tiny little black lop, Penelope. Get it? Penelope… Penny… because she’s a Penny Black Stamper…

I had planned to get a little robin pattern out in December, but couldn’t find time through all those months to get it finished and tested.

So, yeah, crochet took a back seat. Even socials took a back seat. But January is quiet! And staff are trained now! Time to sit back and relax!! Or maybe get back to the crochet.

Nah.

We have foxes in the area, but for years they’ve been unable to get into the garden due to trees, and my own fence spikes**. Unfortunately, my neighbours cut down a bunch of trees, making a patch of fence accessible to one small vixen, and later her mate. They’ve been visiting at night to drink from the hedgehog bowl, and dig around in the compost heap for crunchy bugs and squishy worms, or hoover up any bird seed the pigeons missed.

We think she may have had very early cubs, as on New Year’s Eve, she came around at 2:30pm. Maddie & co were having half an hour free roam while I was in the kitchen.

Suddenly! Screaming! I ran out in my socks to see Maddie in the fox’s mouth, Xena and Gabrielle either side of the fox, going at her to rescue their friend… boss… neighbourhood bully. Honestly, I don’t know why they were willing to sacrifice themselves for her. She’s so mean!

Anyway, I just kept running. The fox ran up the garden and thankfully dropped Maddie to get over the fence and away from the scary human. My poor girl was in shock and had a gaping wound under her wing. It was the equivalent of a person being grabbed by a mako shark; survivable, but you’re gonna need some major TLC.

Click to see the sewn up wound.

The vet had suggested euthanasia as a potential option, it was so bad. But I know Madeleine. My tough little Mads. She’s come through the factory farming system, poor genetics, pneumonia, a repro infection, a two and a half hour operation to remove her reproductive organs because of the poor genetics causing the repro infection. And not once has she ever let anything keep her down… except moulting. She’s so miserable when she moults. But aside from that she has so much strength. She’s made of venom and spite, wrapped around a nail bat.

No way was I considering PTS until we’d given her a chance. The vet and nurses did an incredible job. It took two hours to clean and sew her up. And then I spent every free minute for two weeks keeping her fed, clean, comfortable, and full of painkillers and antibiotics.

Look at the size of these antibiotics. Ridiculous, right? I tried hiding them in coconut oil and hummus. She just sucked off the food and spat out the pills. I tried crushing them and mixing them with hummus. She took one beakful, shook her head and wouldn’t touch it again. I tried syringing the pink hummus into her beak. That worked reasonably well, but it took aaaaages. In the end, I broke them in half, gave her coconut oil, opened her beak and put half a tablet in, then gave her more oil. The oil acted as a treat, some extra calories, and helped coat her throat as swallowing dry tablets is bleh.

Top tip; chickens love veggie capsules. Getting a probiotic into her was a breeze. If you can get their meds in capsules, they’ll just eat them right up.

Mads is doing great. She’s been given the all clear by the vet, and she’s been bullying her little sisters non-stop…

I’m working on some fruit themed chicken patterns at the moment, and will need to get a bee pattern tested before spring.

While I get those patterns finished I’m going to give Ribblr a whirl. I must admit that I don’t really like their system. I prefer a pattern I can move to my own files if I buy it. But we’re all different, and have our own preferences. Lots of people use Ribblr, so I’m willing to give it a shot.

Hopefully there’ll be no more drama on the pet front…

**The fence spikes are not sharp. They just make it feel like walking on Lego if you’re heavier than a magpie.