Attack of the Chicken

Originally, I had this story at the end of the Petting Zoo post, but I thought it deserved it's own post ;-)

What should have been a fabulous day at the petting zoo, might have been the most traumatic thing that has happened to either of us in the last twenty-one months.  Let me start by saying that Sophia loves animals. I mean REALLY loves them. She always wants to hold/pet/kiss just about every animal that she comes across.
Sophia had made the rounds and petted everything at the zoo except the turkeys, they were more just to look at because they are so mean, and the chickens, which were behind an iron fence.  We had just finished feeding the bunny rabbit, and I guess Sophia thought that the chicken was hungry too.  And she was right.
Sophia stuck her hand through the fence to give it some rabbit pellets and the chicken latched on to her middle finger.  Yep, that's right.  And Anna got a picture to prove it.  I ran over to rescue my sweet little girl from the crazy chicken, but the damage was already done.  She had several cuts on her middle finger from the chickens beak.  What a sad, sad little girl.  She was crying hysterically, partly due to pain and partly due to the horror of what had just happened.  I felt so terrible for not protecting her from the crazy chicken.  Once she calmed down, we petted a few more animals and then we said goodbye to the petting zoo.

For the next two days we talked a lot about what had happen with the chicken.  She is very much a verbal processor.  This was the story in her words, "Chicken bite Sophia.  No, no chicken!  No, bite Sophia. Mommy kiss it! Sophia so sad."  It still breaks my heart thinking about it.  She didn't mention the chicken incident for the next few days and I thought all had been forgotten.
Almost a week later, she woke up in the middle of the night screaming.  It really scared me because she is such a good sleeper and rarely (if ever) wakes up in the middle of the night.  I ran upstairs to her room and when I got her out of the crib she was shaking and crying quite hard.  As I picked her up she started saying, "Chicken bite Sophia. Chicken in Sophia's bed.  No, no chicken!".  Yes, her very first nightmare was about the chicken incident.  Poor baby ;-(

UPDATE:  For the next month we could not say the 'c' word without her reenacting the whole incident.  Yes, she is a little dramatic.  I have no idea where she gets that from.  ;-)