Evie's first "Pet"

Every year during the spring the local farm supply store, Tractor Supply, has what they call "Chick Days." Several weeks where they sell chicks and baby ducks. Some stores even sell rabbits, turkeys and guineas. But being a small area, we don't quite rank that sort of selection.

A few weeks ago I sent Josh and Evie to pick up dog food from Tractor Supply. They're honestly the cheapest place in town to get decent quality dog food. And when they got home Josh told me that Evie absolutely freaked out over the chickens. She loved them! I know Evie loves dogs and she is open to liking cats, but I didn't know that her affections extended to our feathered friends as well. Of course she likes watching the birds out the window on the bird feeders. But then they're flitting around and flying. They're pretty interesting. But chickens? I had no idea.

Well, my mom has been wanting to get some chickens for her back yard. She's got a fenced in area and wants to put chickens and rabbits there. Although my step dad doesn't really want farm animals he doesn't have the ability to tell his granddaughter "no" so when my mom told him that the chickens were for Evie...well, he caved.

I spent some time researching what kind of chicken we wanted on the website. The Dominques were supposed to reproduce and be pretty docile. They were a blackish colored chick so they'd be easy to pick out. 

The day before Easter seemed like the perfect time to go get Evie a chicken. So this morning I dressed her for the occasion and asked her if she wanted to go get a chicken. Her answer was of course, "Yeah, yeah!"

So we met her Mimi at Tractor Supply. She beat us there and called to tell us they had already sold out of everything but the little yellow chicks. Ah well. Evie wouldn't know the difference. They keep the chicks and ducks in these huge metal tubs under heat lamps. Evie saw the ducks first and stood pointing yelling "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck!" The other customers were pretty amused. Several stopped to watch her pet a couple of baby ducks.

Then it was time to pick out chicks. We got one with brown spots on its back. That's specifically Evie's chicken.

She was very fascinated watching the chicks. Although she did keep calling them ducks.

But she quickly moved on to "Mine, Mine, Mine."

After we told her a few times to be easy and to just pet the chicken, she got the hang of it.

Then after every time she managed to pet one of the chicks, she would clap her hands excitedly.

It was adorable.

So meet Evie's first pet. The first pet bought solely for Evie. He (or she) is a chicken. And I think she's going to call him Duck.

Happy Easter everyone!