Residents' News

Because we have a lot of animals, many rescued from dire circumstances, losing them through ill health or old age is something that sadly, we are used to. Yet if we lose more than one in a short period of time it can be quite tough - and that is exactly what has happened in the last 24 hours.

Our fabulous small animal vet kindly allowed us to take her straight there for humane euthanasia

Last night, whilst doing the evening check of the rodents, Mark discovered that one of the male mice had died. We said our goodbyes and placed him in a box overnight for burial today. This afternoon, whilst the hens were free-ranging, we checked on one of two hens that has been 'slowing down' over the last few days and saw that she was starting to struggle and it was therefore unfair to keep her going. Our fabulous small animal vet kindly allowed us to take her straight there for humane euthanasia (using gas so she would be asleep when the lethal injection was administered).

Cookie was one of our oldest hens (coincidentally, we worked out their ages two days ago and established that Cookie (from a

rough date of hatching) was just over 3 years old - very good going for an ex-battery hen). The fact that mice can live for up to one and a half years (our little mouse was not even a year old), and hens that have not been so forcibly bred can live for up to 15 years, makes it sad to say goodbye so soon. Rather than dwell on what might have been however, we would just like to think that we gave one little mouse and one scraggy old hen the love and respect that all animals deserve. Goodbye sweet Cookie and dear little gingery boy - it won't be the same without you x

Photo: the day Cookie came home

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