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Actually, yes it was:
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I never said it wasn't an honest mistake with her--who can imagine purposefully trying to destroy someone's hatch?--but it's apparently an honest mistake for which she doesn't understand all the implications. As most hatchers know, they're not "just eggs."
For instance, I never would have thought that hatching eggs would cost as much as they do before I started hatching, myself. I mean, eggs in the grocery store are 2 bucks. Someone who doesn't hatch may feel bad about the waste of (what she thinks is) 6 or 8 bucks, but NOT understand the fact that there were living little babies inside ready to come out and be adorable. She may feel more regret when she understands they were more precious than two bucks a dozen, that it's possible for certain breeds you may not even be able to get eggs again right away, but will have to go on a waiting list, and it's possible that the eggs next time around will be mishandled in the post and it will be additional money thrown away.
As I said, if she doesn't understand the loss of the "just eggs," she might understand the loss in other terms, monetary terms. Some people don't assign value to anything inexpensive. That's why people whose dogs kill chickens don't "get" why the chicken owners are upset. After all, common breeds of chickens only cost 20 bucks, maybe. They don't see chickens as affectionate, intelligent creatures that have been killed. They don't understand rare breeds or hard-to-get eggs.
That this was an honest mistake doesn't relieve her of fault. It would simply be (unimaginably) worse if she had meant to screw things up on purpose.
Edited for typos
It was an honest mistake, but she just didn't get why it upset me so much and that's what I'm angry about. They're just eggs to her, but they're pets to me. If it had been a litter of kittens, she'd be just as upset as I was, but she doesn't understand the birds as pets at all.
I didn't buy the eggs, my hens laid them, so there's no cost in that respect. They were the entire first clutch from the very first egg of my second hen and I was super excited for them. I staggered my hatches through the holidays because I have issues with depression at Christmas. The two chicks last week helped, expecting the hatch this week helped, but now it's gone - and not even like a normal hatch loss, but through total inconsiderateness - and I'm just not really dealing.
In other news.. My Craigslist ad got a response from someone who has silkies. I may very well be informing Guest that she's getting in the car and driving an hour with me to pick up fuzzy chickens tonight.
I could always give her the choice.. drive with me to get chickens and have me happy through the holidays, or put up with the SAD + PTSD + first year without my mother + all my military siblings overseas + two brothers dead this year = crushing holiday depression that's just hanging over my head like an anvil. I'm propping it up with baby birds. So far, it's working. I have something else - happy things - to think about when my brain starts going into the bad zone.
I do live alone, and admit I'm not used to guests or having to instruct people about my stuff, but I also figured it would be fairly obvious that the hatcher was plugged into the powerstrip sitting right next to it.
She's not a bad person, and she didn't do it on purpose. It was a mistake, and her response was less than compassionate because she doesn't understand that my birds are just as much beloved pets as my cats are. That's why I wanted to start shouting at her.
-Spooky
