There's a Chicken in the Dishwasher- A true story of my chickies

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Chapter 9: Newbies
Late Fall 2007
Charlotte
We are just getting into the shelter in our pen when we here the squawking.
“Help us! Help us! Help us, help us, help us…” one chicken repeats.
“Where are we!?” another chicken asks.
“GET ME OUT OF THIS CARRIER!” one chicken screeches.
One chicken simply screams, long and horrible.
The 4 voices were all different, so we guess that there are 4 chickens.
We creep out of our shelter and into the screen part of our pen. The humans come around the corner of the playhouse carrying 2 of the crates they use to transport us. There are 2 chickens in each carrier.
The humans come to our pen and open the doors to the carriers. They slowly and carefully tilt the containers and a rooster jumps out of one of the carriers. He walks around our pen confidently, surveying his new surroundings. He crows loudly, and me and Carly jump. It’s been so long since we have had a rooster around.
The 3 hens are still in the carriers. Suddenly, one hen, with beautiful gold and black feathers rockets out of the carrier at lightning speed.
She beckons the other hens over.
“It’s safe, guys!” she calls out.
The other 2 hens slowly come out. One hen is significantly older than all the others. She walks slowly, and has brown feathers speckled with white and black.
The final hen has a black neck and black tail feathers, but the rest of her is white. She has a streak of yellow down her breast. It looks like she spilled something on herself.
I notice that the rooster has a crest, like Char. He looks like Man- Chick, but bigger, and his feathers are golden-buff and white.
Finally the other birds notice us. The older hen leans in towards the others.
“You be nice to them, y’all,” she whispers. “You can tell by their faces that they have been through a lot.”
If she only knew, I think.
“Hiya!” the black and white hen says while bounding up to me. “I’m Callie. I’m a Lakenvelder.”
“Nice to meet y’all!” the old hen says. “I’m Cassie, and I’m a Speckled Sussex.”
“Hi! I’m Olivia, but you can call me Olie. I’m a Sicilian Buttercup!” the lightning- fast hen says.
Then I notice her huge spurs. They are a little bit bigger than the rooster’s!
“Cool spurs,” I say, without meaning to.
“Thank ya! They’re great for defending myself.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say. “I’m Charlotte, and I’m a White Crested Black Polish.”
“Yes, it’s nice to see some new faces around here,” Carly says happily. “I’m Carly, and I’m a Buff Cochin.”
“But I have to warn you, there are lots of predators…” she says, and trails off.
“I’ll protect you with my spurs!” Olie exclaims, and does a kick so fast that all we see is a blur.
“Me too!” the rooster butts in. “By the way, I’m Nick and I’m a Buff Laced Polish.”
“So, about the predators,” Cassie says politely, “Is that why there are only 2 of you…?”
“Yes,” I say, and Carly and I tell the whole story.
“That’s horrible,” Cassie says softly when we are finished.
“Our old home wasn’t without risks, either,” Callie says.
“Life was great until we got moved into another pen. We all lived in different pens with our siblings before that, but one day the man took us and put us in a pen with lots of other birds. Then they started to disappear, in groups. One day, the man let us out of the pen. I strayed away from the group, and I saw a horrible sight. The man had a helper, and they were chopping our friends’ heads off. My best friend Ally died that day.” Tears sprang to her eyes.
The other chickens looked surprised. I had just met her, but she seemed like a chicken that wouldn’t cry very much. Cassie must have seen the look on my face.
“Show some sympathy!” she snapped quietly near my ear. “Would you be upset if you lost your best friend?”
I thought about it. I was quite upset when I lost Jenna, Man- Chick, Bess and Fat- Guy, too. I’ll try to be nicer.
“After he was done, he ground up their bodies and fed them to his dogs. When your humans came, there were only about 2 groups left,” Callie continued, still fighting back tears. “I heard the man saying that he had a rooster to get rid of, and some hens, too. I thought he was going to kill us next. But when he came into our pen, he held 2 carriers. There were some unfamiliar humans waiting near the coop. The man caught us and stuffed us into the carriers. Your humans loaded us into their vehicle and took us here.”
“They saved us from certain death,” Callie said after a few seconds, and burst into tears.
Cassie and Olie put their wings around her.
“They gave us a new life,” Nick said.
 

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