Fran is healing, and it is a powerful thing to see an animal heal, even so simple a creature as a chicken. Day by day, Fran is getting better, stronger. She ate some food from a bowl today, walked a few feet, is moving her head. Maria applies the antibiotic cream twice a day and we clean the crate, change the water. Today Fran came out into the light and walked a bit. Her wounds are scabbing over, she is eating and moving her head.  I think she will recover, and having seen her awful wounds Saturday, I am surprised. It is one of life’s small miracles, victories.

They do it so differently than we do, in so many ways, given the chance, they heal themselves. An inspiration for me, when I think about health care. So many people have fantasies about animals, equate loving them with the idea that none of them will ever suffer or die. In the country, on farms, we learn to think differently. Death is everywhere, and no one saves the rabbit from the hawk, or the mouse from the owl, or the mole from the barn cat. Or the chicken from the fox, usually.  In the healing of one of the world’s simplest creatures, there is a spiritual feeling, a dance of love and love and reality. I love watching Maria’s healing ways. I see in every photo why I love her so much. She and Fran will take the healing through.  I’ll put more photos up on Facebook.