Six days ago I found the chickens hiding under a bush, all of them panicked, including the normally calm Cleo. But I only found three chickens, as opposed to the four that there should be. My mom and I searched everywhere for May, but she was nowhere to be found. I cried my eyes out, as each day the hope that she was just holed up somewhere sitting on a clutch of eggs became more and more improbable, until it would take a large miracle for her to show up alive. Yesterday I cried when I remembered she was supposed to go shopping with us today. But this morning, my mom woke me up early, and told me she had a surprise for me. Then she dropped May on my pillow. May was filthy, thin, and dehydrated, but ALIVE. Turns out mom found her chowing on some scratch on the patio when she went to take the dogs out. Then she caught her and brought her back into the house. I'm guessing that she either jumped the fence and explored the neighborhood before she got homesick enough to come home and hop the fence, or she got frightened by something and squeezed behind the siding, where she decided it would be fun to set up a nest. Either way, she is safe home now. Here's a picture I took of her this morning:
