Maxine

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by Ginger Brousil
(Winchester, Wisconsin, USA)

Maxine was found half frozen on a sidewalk just before Christmas. Our family took her in from the people that found her, we already had chickens and many other animals. We gave her a bath because she was so dirty, and being wet we could see she was very skinny.

She stayed in the house with us; she perched on the back of the little rocking chair and never moved. We would have to bring the food and water to her, and I then lifted her from her spot and noticed her poor feet were in really bad shape. Besides the frostbite on the ends of her toes she had bumble foot really bad. We would soak her feet in Epson salt and really warm water.

Maxine didn't mind any of it; she was a trooper. We then would put antibiotic cream on her feet and put socks on. She didn't mind that either, in fact she would walk around then.

After a few weeks of treating her feet Maxine lost the ends of 4 toes but was in excellent shape. She put on weight and was spoiled rotten. She was now living in the house in a huge wire dog kennel, with a roost and a nice nesting box. We would let her out to play with the dog and scare the cats.

Trying to eat with Maxine out was not a good thing she would fly up and take stuff off of your plate!! Within a couple of months our rescued healthy Maxine was giving us a beautiful brown egg a day for our efforts.

Response: Thanks for sharing Ginger! Great story. Maxine was lucky to find such a good home!