There is a drawback to having animals.  They die.  Shortly after we got the walls of the chicken enclosure up Sassy found an escape route. This was a few weeks ago, but it ended up being the cause (we think) of her death.  Lolly got a hold of her that day and although we saved her, she had a puncture wound near her neck and a hurt leg.  We kept her away from the flock for a couple of days, taking her out to play in the daytime, and she seemed to be getting well.  She even started laying eggs again.  But last week she was limping more severely, and the other hens began picking on her, so we took her out of the enclosure on Saturday and put her in her own pen in the garage.  Since then she has gotten worse, and yesterday when we took her out to the yard she couldn't even stand on her good leg.  We sat in the sun with her and dug her a grave.  Last night she died and this morning we buried her in our backyard.  It's a sad day for the Curry kids.