YOUTH MATTERS Was it fate that brought Ashley the chicken to share our lives?

A colleague, Ash sadly passed away suddenly. He lived on a farm and kept chickens and regularly made fun of my hatred of the country and mine and my mum’s fear of chickens.

About a week after his funeral, my mum called me at 6am as she had seen a chicken on our windowsill, staring in at the kitchen.

We were both in shock, but convinced it was down to a lack of coffee, so my mum took our dogs for a walk and I went up for a shower.

About half an hour later, she called me to say the mystery chicken was still in our drive and we had better shut her in the garden, before she wondered off.

We opened the gate and managed to convince the chicken to come inside and we went to work.

We kept her in the shed at night and let her loose in our garden during the day.

Getting braver, each day, my mother and I went in the garden and took care of our adopted pet. After several phone calls to the local vets, nobody came forward to claim her, so we decided to keep her.

As the days passed, we slowly began touching her, and eventually even picked her up. After reading a book about chickens, we decided it was only fair to get some company for her, and soon she had two friends.

Our evenings after work are now spent collecting freshly laid eggs, cleaning out the chicken coop and giving the hen’s individual cuddles!!

I’d like to think fate does exist and somehow ‘Ashley the Chicken’ was a gift from our colleague to overcome our fear of chickens.

Kelly Wickham