Back in Central Asia we rarely had pets. Our last two years there we did have two pet guinea pigs. It was so hard for Liberty and Van to leave them behind. We fortunately we able to leave with the same lady from whose pet store we bought them from. She was happy to have them back, nice and fat!

Well, here we are in France and the kids have been asking for a pet. But they had inspiration: A chicken coop was already in place in the backyard of where we are staying. We asked the owner, and the neighbours, if we could get two chickens, and everyone thought it was a splendid idea. I imagine they were fine with this because across the back lane from our house, and the other houses, is a fenced-off section where a miniature pony and two goats live. So, two chickens would not be a problem.

We looked online and found a farmer selling chickens for only 12 Euro each. We drove out to his place, and picked a black chicken and a red chicken. Liberty wanted to red one, and named it Popcorn. Van chose the black chicken and called it Charlie. It took a few days for the two hens to adjust to their smaller and more private accomodations, but before you knew it they were walking around eating bugs and grass, AND laying eggs.

So, the kids have ‘pets’. We have a sort of mosquito/pest control system. And we have one fresh egg a day. Yay!