Rescue & Recovery Diaries: Petula’s Story

Hello, My name is Petula Cluck & here’s my story.

One Saturday morning last year I was in a strange brick house in a cage with lots of other hens.

This Saturday was going to be very different though!

Lots of hoomans with two legs turned up & gathered us all up in too bigger cages & put us in a big white box with wheels.  It seemed a very long time until the white box stopped & I was very frightened but then some other hoomans took us & put us all in a big pen where I could see the blue sky & I had something soft under me & not cold hard bars.

Lots of hoomans came & collected my sister hens but I was different..my legs didn’t work, after being in my cage for so long my legs had stopped working & I couldn’t stand up.

After all my sisters had gone the hoomans who owned the big brick house took me inside & put me in another cage but this one was different! It had something called a fluffy soft towel in it for me to lay on & food & water to drink. 

I was so tired I just slept.

Over the next few weeks the hoomans made sure I ate & drank & exercised my legs by moving them up & down & bending my claws up & down.

I was given a special Orange leg ring & even better a name!…Petula Cluck. 

Slowly my legs began to work, at first I just managed to shuffle about in my new secure cage in the hoomans kitchen but then I managed to stand up! 

Believe me this took a lot of effort but my hooman mummy & daddy were so happy! 

In the evening the hooman mummy & daddy got me out of my cage & let me explore the house once my legs where stronger enough & I had cuddles on the big sofa, where I learnt to preen myself! 

Every day I got stronger & stronger until I was ready to go into ‘Hen Hospital’, this was next to the big run I’d been in when I arrived from the farm & I could see the other hens like me in it, scratching around & doing Chickeny things…I was so excited!

Hen Hospital had its own run & coop & my hooman mummy showed me how to go & roost at night by going up a ladder, one night I did it all by myself I really don’t know who was happier, me or hoomans!! 

I stayed in Hen Hospital for 2/3 weeks while my sisters got used to seeing me through the run next door. 

In this time I was let out to ‘free roam’ around the big green soft stuff called grass in the garden with my sisters from the big pen. 

At first they weren’t nice & I was a bit frightened but the hoomans were always there tell them off.  Slowly we established our pecking order & one night the hooman mummy took me out of Hen Hospital when I was very tired & sleepy & put me in the big pen coop with my sisters!

When I woke up I was slightly worried as my sisters were there but not the hooman mummy. I managed it down the steps from the coop into the big pen & after a bit of scuffling, my sisters just carried on scratching & pecking & ignored me. I was still unsure but then I started to scratch & peck as well with them.

I now live in the big pen living my best life in my forever home. The hoomans come down everyday to see us & makes sure we have food, water & treats! 

After 8 months I am a fully fledged chicken that can run & jump with my magic legs, I never thought I’d get to see this day but thanks to all the hoomans that help us I am living my best life!

My name is Petula Cluck & I am the chicken that learnt to walk!.