Ditto's Demise

The attack by the hawk happened before I came to live at my new home. From what I'm told, it was a horrible event--one that still haunts everybody. Here's the story as it was told to me.

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There used to be another hen that lived here. Her name was Ditto. She was a barred rock, like me. Ditto was named after Goofball. Ditto acted like Goofball, but it wouldn't have worked to call her Goofball the Second, so the nice lady named her Ditto.





One day Ditto and the rest of the hens were out on a nice bug and worm hunt.

The leaves had started to fall from the trees so there wasn't as much cover from overhead attacks as usual.

Ditto just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the hawk swooped down and attacked her. It could have been any of the hens, but it was Ditto that was attacked. The nice lady happened upon the crime right after it happened. The hawk flew away as the lady walked up to fence, but it was too late for poor Ditto.





Her body was on the ground, lifeless. The hens that had witnessed the murder were in a traumatized state. They were hiding and trying to let the lady know that a terrible thing had happened. The nice lady ran to get the man. As the story goes, when the man picked up the lifeless, headless body of Ditto, he asked the nice lady if they should clean Ditto and EAT HER! (That can't be true!) The nice lady answered, "NO," to that horrible question, and they buried poor Ditto, with her head.

A few days later, our fence was moved and overhead fencing was added so that we would have cover year-round. Now we just have to be careful when we're outside of our pen. The nice lady is usually there helping us keep watch for those predators in the sky.





There is a memorial to Ditto. We hope it helps to keep those hawks away from us.