Tribute to Tilly Rose

My precious Tilly put up a good fight with her illness,

 but Thursday night unexpectedly her fight ended and she died in my arms.

Please bare with me as I tell a little about Tilly and show you some pictures of her.

This will be a long post, but I hope you enjoy her story.

To all those out there who are animal lovers you'll know what I mean when I say Tilly was like one of the family.  I loved her so much and I know she loved me.  She was always so happy to see me no matter if I was gone 30 min. or a whole day.  She was love in a fur ball. 

She and I have been through a lot together.  She gave such unconditional love.

Let me tell you how we met.  My aunt had a long haired chihuahua and I fell in love with him. His name was Sammy.  I wanted one too, so I contacted the breeder and requested a girl puppy from the next litter.  I was so excited waiting for her to be born.  She finally arrived on August 22, 2000.  In two weeks I was allowed to meet and hold her.  Every week I went to hold and pet her until I could bring her home at eight weeks.  And from then on we loved each other.

Tilly was one of a kind.  She loved everyone and everyone loved her.  Cocoa her sister misses her terribly.  She's never been without her.  I'm sure it will take her a while to get use to being the only dog in the house.  My grief is heavy.  Please pray for me.

Now a few pictures of the life of sweet Tilly.

 This is Tilly at two weeks. The first time I met her.

 Here she is at six weeks. Giving me the eyeball.

She continued to do that the rest of her life.

 Sound asleep like a baby at eight weeks old.

 This is at twelve weeks. Her hair is starting to grow.

 She's trying to practice good dental hygiene. 

She's about a year.

 She loved all her animal toys.

 One funny thing about Tilly,  you could always tell when she'd been sniffing around.

She always ended up with something on her nose.

 Again...

 And again.

 Here she is in one of her princess poses.

She is beautiful isn't she.

 She loved to look out the door. If you were on the other side you could only see her ears and part of her eyeballs.

 This is her in her last moments of life in my arms.

 I am so thankful and feel so blessed that I was with her when she died.

It's a moment I'll never forget.

 Here's her little box.

 And her gravestone.

My Tilly.

She was such a sweet and beautiful dog.

I hope you enjoyed sharing in a little of Tilly's life.

Feel free to leave a comment.

New Chicken Coop

This is the arrival of my new chicken coop. 

As you might have read it arrived the same day my first chicks were killed.

I ordered it from Leonard's.

Here it's coming through the front fence and being rolled to the back yard. 

It's slow going rolling on two poles.

But finally the Leonards guy almost has it to the right spot.

It's going to the white outline on the right.

Here it is all in place.

Here's what I named it.

We've added some new steps which makes it so much easier to feed and check on the girls.

Decorations are also being added.

Here is a look at the inside.

Nesting boxes are to the right.

You can access them from the outside.

Here are there perches on the left.

Here is the other side where they will enter the coop from the run.

We are in the process of designing and building the run now.

I'll have updates of how it turns out.

Hopefully it will be done by the time the girls are old enough to go outside.

New Beginnings. Another chicken story

After the loss of my other chicks, I decided to get some more.

I enjoyed the others so much, and was so sad when I lost them to a predator that I couldn't wait to try again with some new little ones.

Meet my new little flock.

This is Blackberry.

She's a Barred Plymouth Rock. 

I'm ready for my close up..

This is how she will look when she's an adult.

This is Copper.

She's a Red Sex Link.

Hello There!

This is what she will look like when she's an adult.

This is Biscuit.

She's a bantam.

I'm hoping she's a she. Time will tell.

She's a Belgian Bearded d'Uccle-Mille Fleur.

Well la-de-da!

How do you like my slippers?

This is what she will look like as an adult.

Stay tuned for some more chickens. 

I've ordered four more due in a couple of weeks.

Sad ending to a chicken story

Below are pictures of the chicks at 5 weeks old.

This is Slippers. The silky.

 Aren't my legs pretty.

This is a picture of one that I hatched.

They are getting so big.

Everyone is enjoying sitting around ,

and chilling out.

Sadly these are the last pictures of my chicks.

Just two days later and they're gone.

Something broke into the coop and killed them all last night.

One was left in the pen, dead. There was no sign of the others.

The size of the opening looks like it probably was a fox.

They were in this makeshift coop until I received the new one I had ordered from Leonards.

I had thought the coop would have been safe but sadly it wasn't.

As irony would have it, my new coop arrived today.

I do plan on getting more chickens, but i'll really miss these.

 They had started to eat out of my hands and not be afraid.

They were so enjoyable to watch.

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13