"Sophie's Watch"

Sophie is one of our white peahens and she is the first to go out and the last to come back to the barn before winter sets in. She loves to be outside.

One year we had an unexpected storm. The wind took the snow fall into blizzard like conditions at our farm.  It was all we could do to get our furry and feathered friends into the barn, get the door closed and make it back to the house. The next morning, I looked out my kitchen window to see an unfamiliar white object hanging over a fence in a far pasture. Curiosity and a sick feeling took me to the closet to bundle up in my coat, scarf, gloves and thick winter boots. I set off through the knee deep snow and the bitter cold so that I could get a better look at the fence. It wasn’t long before I realized that is was Sophie. The next twenty minutes was spent crawling through waist high snow drifts until I reached my very cold friend. Sophie sat patiently and watched as I stumbled and fell through the drifts of snow. When I reached her, she allowed me to tuck her under my arm and together we made our way to the barn. A heat lamp for her and a warm bath for me thawed our very cold bodies. 

To this day she still sits out until the very last moment. In this photo you can see her sitting in one of the trees in our back woods. My heart breaks with the sadness that I know she feels as winter is upon us. However, when I call she reluctantly returns to the barn. I believe that both of us remember that cold winter day and I believe that neither of us wishes to repeat it.