R.I.P.

On Saturday, July 10 we lost a baby chick.

It seems as if a rat entered a 1.5" opening and attacked a chick, ate its throat and part of its legs. The eyes were pecked out. It is enough to give me the chills right now! I am completely creeped out by it and feel so negligent because the chick died. We all had checked several times throughout the day, so we might have scared the rat away during its feast. It was hard to tell when it happened since the dead chick was all the way in the back of the brooder kind of camouflaged in the sawdust flooring. We didn't find it until the evening. After I found it and Jake buried her I was checking on them constantly. At one point one was writhing around in the sawdust and the others were pecking at it. I screamed for a box so we could take it out and analyze its injuries. When I went to pick it up it just jumped up and ran away! It was just taking a dust bath. All 15 other chicks survived unscathed. The rat trap was set right after and the brooder "rat-proofed", but still no dead, disgusting rat in the trap.