Wilderness: The Death of Sunny
Chapter 4 In which something terrible happens to one of our rescue chickens
Wilderness: In Search of Belonging is about my childhood growing up as a dual-heritage child in rural Britain. Recently, my family and I moved to a remote part of Somerset and started a mini conservation project. This is my story - how nature can help and heal, how we can all find out what it means to belong.
The first chapter is here and is free to read.
We call our new rescue chickens Willow, Sunny and Lulu. A few hours later, it’s apparent that Willow is seriously ill. I call our local vet at Bristol University’s Veterinary Department.
‘Probably internal bleeding,’ the vet says. ‘When companies get rid of hens, the men literally throw them into the containers. She’s probably been very badly man-handled.’ She tells me to keep Willow warm and feed her water with a dropper, mushed-up pellets and dissolved aspirin every hour.
What I’ve discovered is that