We have chicks!

I am one of those people that talk to all their animals (and yes I do believe they understand us) and have become very fond of chickens in the last  year and a half. My chicken story started out rough and expensive especially if you include the E.R. bill, yes I almost decapitated myself when the 4x8 building being moved broke... and it broke on the left side of my face, neck, arms and chest. By God I had the most expensive chickens in at least a three state radius! Thankfully the scars have healed for the most part and even though I have moved since then my hobbies haven't changed. Last week I successfully hatched out eight Delawares out of twelve, and today a shipment of day old assorted brown egg layers came. I think the postman thought I needed to pop a pill when I squeeed in delight and clapped my hands excitedly when he handed me my chirping package. For a moment in time I felt like a five year old opening that present that Santa had assured me would be under the tree, ahh it was bliss opening up the box and seeing all of the chicks alive and so fluffy and just absolutely adorable. Integrating my week old Delawares with the day olds proved to be so interesting, almost good enough to YouTube. Athena my five week old kitten that thinks she is a chicken was on top of the kennel watching in awe as fifteen little poof balls made the eight occupants spread like wildfire. Of course it wasn't helping the situation any when my oh so intelligent three year old was instructing me how to 'gret the cheekeens mommy!' and even taking the time to point as he was dictating. As I realized what a huge mess I made, total chaos right before my eyes Athena decides to join the madhouse. Let me stress no chicks were harmed at all. When I say she thinks she is a chicken, I'm not joking, I'll be lucky if my kitten even attempts to attack a mouse. The entire purpose of getting her was because of our lovely rodent problem, I mean I can handle mice but NOT an I do mean NOT standing on my foot while I'm doing dishes at 9pm. If you are trying to picture a 36 year old woman in shorts and a t-shirt flailing her arms and screaming, your good so far but you would think the mouse was gone... I wasn't that lucky. My fiance is laughing hysterically and pointing at my foot that was still occupied by the mouse. Yes I woke up the boys during all of this and now if you say mouse they scream and it is all my fault, but that is where Athena falls into place. One problem, last week she discovered she can cuddle with the chicks and go to sleep so today was pure joy for her. Next problem the new poof balls didn't know that the giant was a friendly, so operation peck anything you can reach was initiated. Part of me wanted to cry but my three year old Caleb was still telling me how to help the 'cheekeens' not once blinking an ounce of concern to Athena, then the uncontrollable giggle erupted. Like the kind in high school where if you even snicker your teacher is sending you to the office but your best friend looks at you and some sort of silent joke sets you into a fit of laughter. Yes I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face, Caleb then tells me to turn my water off and then Athena jumps on me with a poof ball clinging to her tail for dear life. I half expected her to be trembling but mind you she was actually purring, she fits in quite well in this dysfunctional family. What should happen doesn't and what does shouldn't and the results are always out of the ordinary and definitely intriguing. So Athena was out, poof ball back in, all 23 chicks have assimilated and I have soupy chicken feed in the kennel to clean up yet. But we have chicks and I am so excited! It has started this comical already I can't wait to see how they are when the hen house is up.