Those really were my first words as I made my way to the peacock house after hearing that my big male peacock had died this summer.Although this picture is not he ( my peacock ,not my husband!), he looked just like this when he died. His tail was over 5 feet tall and absolutely gorgeous.My exclamation was because dead and /or sick animals disgust me and now Clyde would need to be buried.We were not able to save any of the feathers although he was due to loose them all the next month. The previous summer I collected about 100 beautiful feathers when he molted.Larry got right to the job of digging a 3 foot hole (yes, you do the math) and he was buried in our pet cemetary, Boot Hill.We were all saddened by his loss but the good news was that our female was sitting on 5 eggs! Those hatched and we had baby peacocks in June.We gave three to friends and kept a male and a female and still had their mother.
Last week and again today, there was more bad news amongst our pets.One morning last week, Tori found that our four rabbits had been attacked and killed in the night time by an animal that was strong enough to create a 5 inch hole in heavy duty wire under the cages.There was much upset particularly because the killer did not eat the rabbits but left them. The foot prints left behind made us wonder about a dog, bear,fox, mountain lion, coyote or bob-cat.Today when Tori went out to feed the pony she discovered that the same animal had come back, ripped into the pen and killed our peacocks.This time there were foot prints left in the snow. Greg was here to chop wood and he and Larry attempted to track the animal but had no luck. We realized that only two dead peacocks were left in the cage.It is unclear whether the other one was able to get away or was taken away.If she is alive, she may come back. I'll let you know. Meanwhile,I went back into the house and Larry took care of the remaining dirty business at hand. Thank God I have a Husband!
