By Kaleb

Ilwaco High School, Ilwaco, Washington
I have always liked chickens but there have been sometimes when I haven't enjoyed having chickens. Fluffy wasn't the first chicken that I've had before. I had three other chickens before him. Their names were Jolene, Joe, and Sleepy.
Joelene was my very first chicken and I taught her how to use her wings to jump and when she jumped she would always make sure to land on my hand and that made me feel accomplished that I trained a chicken but later that month she was killed by an unknown source.
Joe was my second chicken he was just bought as a little chick and while he was with his friends that we bought he got sick and I fed him medicine but he was really sick and died.
Sleepy was my third chicken. He was very loving and he always sat in my hand and fell asleep so that's why I called him sleepy but I put him in my garage overnight and he jumped out and disappeared and never came back.
After all three of my chickens died I started to think that I shouldn't have any animals at all because they all keep dying and I was sad about it so I kinda got depressed for a bit because I love chickens.
A couple of months later I bought fluffy and three other chickens that I gave to my girlfriend's siblings because out of the three I knew fluffy was the one for me with the way he was looking at me, it lit me up with happiness inside and I was glad to have a chicken again.
Over time he started getting bigger and more calm he is currently growing into a rooster because he is about 4 months old now and on days when im sad fluffy knows to come to me and when he does I give him food and we eat together because I make myself food to share with him because he sits in front of me and eats with me. A couple weeks later I got another chicken that I named pancake and she is a small black fluffy chicken with a little black afro. She is a very calm chicken and lets me pick her up whenever and sometimes I hangout with her because she understands my emotions just like fluffy. Pancake and Fluffy have started to make eggs which helps provide food for me and my family.
What I've learned from the experiences is that it's not always your fault for things in life, because when my chickens died, time after time again I've learned that it wasn't my fault because I wasn't there, they all died when I was at school. So I knew it wasn't my fault for their death. When I got fluffy it made me realize that even more because he is still living and I gave him the same treatment as the other chickens. So now I know it wasn't my fault.
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