IG: So I’m sure you’ve heard about therapy dogs, but what about therapy chickens? 🐓🐓🐓 Today I’m thinking a lot about 2 summers ago when I lived in midtown Toronto and rented 4 chickens on a whim. My mom had died about a month earlier and I was grieving. I had always wanted chickens, and when I heard that there was a company who rented them, I jumped right in. I suppose the veil of grief made me a little less law-abiding than usual, since housing chickens in Toronto was then illegal. But it felt like the right thing to do, and exactly what I needed to. I took that whole summer off of work and I grieved, gardened up a friggen’ storm, and spent almost every day hanging out in the backyard with the chickens— GretcHEN, LilliHEN, Ethel and DeHENise (sidenote: DeHENise was unknowingly ill when she came to us and passed away after about a month, despite my best efforts. After that I stuck with just the 3 girls). 🐓 Looking back now, they were 100% my therapy chickens. I guess the point of this story is that we all should do what we need to do to grieve and get through hard times, even if it’s weird or unconventional. I rented chickens for 6 months, it was the best decision I could have made for my healing, and I am SO grateful for that. On another note—CHICKENS ARE AWESOME! Really missing these amazing girls (especially GretcHEN, my fave) and wanting a permanent flock 📷2nd photo cred: @torontogardener