The year of the critters continues

This is how I think of 2024. It's been a very challenging year. In the garden I have battled gophers, rats burrowing into and living in my raised garden beds, eating almost all of my melons, and some tomatoes, and squirrels digging and bearing/ planting walnuts, which causes squashing and uprooting many of my fall seedlings.
Late spring I lost all but 3 of my chickens to a dogs. They broke through the chicken wire fence.  We got that repaired, and managed raise a new flock.
A couple nights ago my son heard a commotion in the coop in the middle of the night, and found two raccoons making a meal of one of my chickens.  My fault really, I get lazy and don't close the coop at night, and that's what I get. So I'm back to closing them in at night, and opening it before work, which is still dark for a bit. I'm thinking about having a light come on about 6:30 am. Maybe it will be safer, not sure, but so far they have been ok.  It makes me feel bad because it was probably preventable, making it my fault.  It's the circle of life, but I feel bad for the poor chicken who had a short life.  The stranger thing was they ate the silky, but my oldest chicken has a broken leg, in the hip. She sleeps on the coop floor tucked in under the nesting boxes. You would think she would be easy prey, but she was untouched.
On a side note I'm sure a lot of you think I should dispatch my lame hen. In total honesty I have worried about it.  I don't want any of my animals to suffer.  She seems to be perfectly functional. No one picks on her she still seems to be high if not top of the pecking order, she eats, drinks, and get all over the coop and chicken yard. She doesn't lay eggs anymore, but until recently was still getting into the nesting boxes, it's where she sleeps. I don't know if she can no longer get up there, or it's just warmer for her to burrow into the wood chips.  Besides hobbling around, she acts like a normal chicken, so I just keep an eye on her, and hope I'm not causing her pain and suffering.

I can understand your thinking process on the hen.

We traded a lady some hens for meat rabbit breeders. She contacted us to see if we wanted a rooster, she had one too many for her flock size. We did not have a rooster at the time and have 15 hens. He fit right in and had great rooster instincts.

A little while back, I noticed a limp which got worse. I separated him  into a 2'x2'x2' cage for a week with the hopes he would improve, fed him comfrey, etc. His hock joint was separated/broken. It really was a shame because he was such a great rooster. I checked him out again this morning and his broken leg was much warmer than the other leg and I assume it was infected.

He went to the stump/hatchet then compost this morning. I did not want to process him into our food with an infection. I guess if it was one of the hens, I would have dispatched her right away since we have 15 currently. Then again, if she seemed okay and was still laying, maybe not. If I would have had 2 roosters, I would have dispatched him as soon as I noticed the injury.

I say all that to say these things are really context based. Our conscience informs us and we do the best we can to make the most thoughtful decisions possible. It is nice to have a spouse or close friend to bounce these things off of that knows you and your situation. There is not a one size fits all.