Good and bad.

My back is all kinds of fucked up currently. Multiple events led to so many fucking pulled muscles up and down the damn thing that breathing hurts.

However! My wife and kid have been awesome helping me handle the stuff that’s normally my job.

And, my hen has been extra cuddly, so I get to hear all the sweet little trills and purrs and chirps.

Our rooster has also decided that I’m his favorite human. This is good and bad, but mostly good. He gets all excited when he sees or hears me and wants to spend time. If you knew this rooster, you’d understand how crazy a development that is. He’s normally the sort that thinks of company as something best kept at least six feet away at all times.

So, it’s really awesome that the bugger is wanting to follow me around, and even be held and petted (which he almost never wants, so that’s a huge change). But, I can’t pick him up because I can’t bend down. And I can’t spend time in the yard with him while he’s out there because I can barely walk down the damn ramp, much less be out in the cold with him for long, standing around like a dummy.

That means that he’ll see me through the window and be all excited, crowing and pecking at the door, but I can’t always come say hello. Since he’s also most definitely not pad trained the way the hen is, I can’t just let him stay in the house for very long without him being in his crate, and I can’t stay with him there either.

So, I end up being a dummy and straining the back spending time with him as much as I can, but not as much as he’d like, so he’s a little sad when he knows I’m there, but don’t come out.

It’s fucking ridiculous! This bird kicked the every loving shit out of a pit bull and a coyote, but he’s perched on the back porch like a puppy that’s been scolded, all droopy and wanting to see me. Like he’s never been a companion because he was not socialized well before we got him. He would follow me around the yard, but he would also be grumpy about it and scold me while puffing up if I got too close to him.

Now, this rooster hops up on my damn lap if I sit down, and is all “hey, monkey, put those paws to use and scratch my neck in the back where I can’t reach. Oh, since you’re back there anyway, how about some pets?” If I’m not sitting, he paces back and forth screaming at me until I get the kid to pick him up. He screams at her like an angry tea kettle, but as soon as he’s in my arms, he’s just chilling, looking around, and making pointed gestures with his head at my hand until I give him scritches and pets.

So, yeah, that’s been my week, combined with some brutal weather that has both chickens unable to really go outside in the yard much. Big guy is on the porch, little girl is inside.