In 2012, I fell in love with the most adorable little chick who I named George. I brought George home to live with me, and from that point on she and I did everything together. I wrongly assumed George was a boy, until she got older. I still called her George, and occasionally Georgia. I took her to parties with me, to the pet store, to the school where I work... everywhere! George and I were inseparable, we were two peas.

 

I enjoyed being around her so much that I wondered if I could rescue one. I heard about a religious ceremony being held in New York called Kaporos, in which chickens are spun around by their wings over the heads of "sinners" for atonement. Those chickens would then be brutally slaughtered right in the street where the ceremony was taking place. Activists rescued as many as they could and drove rescued birds all around the country. George and I decided to take one of the birds, who I named Norman. The week after Norman came, we had a couple surrender their chicken to us, Valencia Jayne. Now, we were a chicken family of three. 

 

In 2018, George passed away in my arms on one of the saddest days of my life. I will never forget her, and the happy memories she and I shared. 

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Just before George passed, I met my future husband, Joe. Joe and I decided to move out of the house we were in and buy a farm in Harvard, IL. We both wanted to start a farm bird sanctuary and permaculture farm. We finally opened Georgia's Place in 2019, naming it after my sweet Georgia.