Let me tell you a story about my mother. I tell people about my mom, but most people don't realize how bad her behavior is.
Friday night I spent a lovely night in Coweta at the auction with friends. I get NO service in Coweta... no calls, no texts, no internet. When I finally got service again, I had a bunch of messages from my mother that culminated in the words "Kelly help!" "Kelly SOS!" and "Kelly I'm dying!"
Would you flip out if your mom sent you that? Of course you would.
It turns out my mother had gone to
TSC earlier in the evening and had seen the chicks. My mother does just about whatever she wants without any regard for consequences (this is not an age thing, she's always been this way). She tried to call me, but when I didn't answer she decided she would go ahead and pick up 14 chicks and get me to take them for her until she could set up a place to put them. Without asking me. Without finding out where I was or what I was doing or if I was even coming home that night. She didn't get anything to keep them in. She didn't get any way to water them. She didn't get any bedding for them. She didn't buy them any food. My mother has a dozen cats that roam in and out of her house at will, along with three large dogs that would happily snack on chicks.
Nope, she just assumed that she would do whatever she wanted, and I would fix it. By the time I got to her place at 2 am, the chicks were almost catatonic with cold. I set her up with a brooder tub, shavings, a heat lamp, one of my watering bottles, and a feeding cup with food. Of course I paid for it all. I fixed her door so the cats can't get in the house.
She asked me to take them for her and I refused. I told her that she's done this before, and critters have suffered because of it, but this time she's not going to blame it on me. If she kills these chicks, it's going to be her fault.
She just called me and told me one of the cats had gotten in and had pulled a chick out of the tub. She found the chick under her chair still alive, so she caught it in time, but I don't know if any actual damage was done. She said she went outside for just a minute, but the only way the cat could have gotten in was if she left the door standing open when she did. I told her two days ago it was time to cover that tub so the chicks can't get out, but she didn't bother doing it. No, it's not because she's old and forgetful... she gets tired of having to do stuff, so she just doesn't do it. If the chick had died, she would have been inconsolable, but that won't make her do what it takes to keep it from happening.
She thinks she's going to be able to continue keeping these chicks inside the house. I'm going to be sick if she puts them outside before it's warm enough because she can't stand the smell.
