Heartbroken family loses two pets in same day to loose dogs

SALISBURY — The bond between people and their pets is often one of the strongest, and when beloved pets die, the loss can be staggering, and if the death is not from natural causes, it can be 10 times worse.

In September 2021, seven-year-old Keegan Ray had a years-long wish fulfilled when he got a pet Silver Duck Wing chicken that he named Penelope. In January of 2023, Penelope made news when she was at Bell Tower Green park with Keegan and his mom, Cassandra, when she went missing. They often took Penelope there to run and play, and that day, another family saw Penelope, thought she’d gotten lost and took her home for safekeeping. Days later, Keegan and Penelope were reunited, and the Post ran a story about the return home of the missing pet chicken.

In time, Keegan and Cassandra thought Penelope might like a friend, and they adopted a rooster named Gizmo. During the same time period, the family began looking for a new home. While searching, they took up residence in a lakeside cottage of a friend who has free range chickens on the property.

Penelope and Gizmo had the run of the cottage and the property during the day, and Cassandra said with Keegan being busier as he gets older, she spent more time with the feathered friends and she developed her own bond, especially with Penelope.

So when she got a call from her friend a week ago Sunday saying he’d found a small rooster in the yard, deceased, she rushed home, hoping for the best all the way but fearing the worst. She didn’t say anything to Keegan while in the car, because she wasn’t sure and didn’t want to upset him.

“We got home and I realized it was Gizmo,” she said. “I immediately started looking for Penelope, walking along and calling to her. Normally, even if she’s hiding, when I pass her she’ll make a little peep. But I heard nothing, and then I turned a corner and I saw her. She was not far from Gizmo, and she was gone.”

She said she broke down, and immediately scooped the small body up in her arms. “I must have held her for an hour,” she said. Keegan was heartbroken over the loss of his two beloved pets, and a rooster belonging to the homeowner was also attacked, losing all his tail feathers.

Cassandra said at first she wondered if it could have been a hawk or a fox, some predator looking for a meal, but neither bird was actually hurt other than a broken neck. It appeared to be the work of neighborhood dogs that likely saw the birds as toys, picking them up and shaking them until the “toy” stopped moving, then moving on to the next.

She contacted animal control and filed a complaint, but more than anything just wants the dogs’ owners to acknowledge what happened and apologize.

“I understand this is not the dogs’ fault,” she said. “But I also know I’m terrified to free range right now.”

The family buried the two birds together in the yard, and Keegan gathered wildflowers and placed feathers on the grave to mark the spot.

“I miss her voice, the sound of her feet, her company,” Cassandra said of Penelope. “I miss them both.”

Keegan said he is still sad about the loss, but this past weekend he and Cassandra went to Green Grables Farm outside Raleigh to meet and bring home two new chickens, both of whom are four months old, the same age Penelope was when he got her. Their names, at least for now, are Janie and Cheche.

“It’s not Penelope, because they all have different personalities, but he’s already bonding with them,” she said. “He said he was ready. I’m not sure I was, but here we go.”