Our sons, Daniel and Matthew raise chickens from one day old chicks each year. They have a little free range egg business, called 'Who Let the Chooks Out', and sell eggs to neighbours and friends. While feeding his chickens one morning last week Daniel decided to look for new egg spots. As he did he came across Captain Puffleface, one of his favourite hens, that had been missing for 2-3 weeks. She was hidden in the corner of the garden sitting on un-fertilised eggs. Not only was she sitting on eggs, but a little face, not a chick, peeked out! It gave Daniel a huge fright and he ran inside to tell us about it. Thinking it was a story we were surprised to find Captain Puffleface sitting on a little kitten!
We have no idea how this all came about, I'm guessing the kitten was separated from it's mother some how and found something warm to snuggle up to in the garden one night and they have been together ever since. Captain Puffleface is a wonderful mum, she is very protective of her baby and they are inseparable. We now feed the kitten and have de-fleaed and de-wormed it. The boys have called her Tiger but when I call 'chick, chick, chick' she comes up to me, so I wonder if we should rename her 'Chick'. Tiger is becoming more adventurous and wandering around, with mum always nearby. Whenever Tiger gets a bit scared she runs back to mum for protection. They are very sweet together.
They had some media interest, the highlight was Daniel's Campbell Live interview with Ali Ikram. Ali did a fantastic job making Daniel feel comfortable and just being himself. They had a ball together! In the end the story wasn't just about Tiger and Captain Puffleface it was also about Daniel and his wonderful imagination. It was really delightful.