- May 21, 2013
- 11
- 1
- 24
I have to post this this morning because I am so upset. Yesterday afternoon, we had to go somewhere and we were gone for two hours. When we got home, we had one scared, badly beaten up girl hiding in our front hedges. Her feathers were all ruffled and loose, and she had all but lost her tail. Our daughter, B, ran around back to check on the rest of our 12 layer flock and our coop and run of 10 bantams. The enclosed bantams were all fine, but (if this is even possible) had looks in their eyes like they had seen what happened. B came back to me crying. All she could say was "blue". That was our sweet, white, blue-legged Ameraucana. We just spent weeks rehabilitating Blue when she mysteriously had trouble walking and feeding herself. She had just started laying again and keeping up with the rest of the girls.
I went into the coop, and she was there, next to a cluster of smashed eggs. Her neck broken. That's when I found myself carrying a dead chicken - with reverence - not by the feet or carelessly.
Joey, one of our white Rockies, was hiding behind some steel fencing. I shooed her out and realized that she had also been attacked.
B came back to me and I asked her to do a head count. 8. Gimley is missing. Everyone else seemed alright.
My daughter immediately went CSI after we placed Blue to rest under the Beauty Berry bush. "I don't see any tracks. It must have been a hawk." But I asked her if she thought a hawk would pursue a hen all the way around the house - we followed the trail of feathers. And would a hawk hang around to continue harassing the rest of the girls?
I came back inside, very upset. My husband was not reacting with alarm or anything. He said it might be a fox, raccoon, or possum. But at 5pm? In broad daylight? He took out the trash, and didn't come back in. I went outside to find him. He was talking across the fence to our neighbor. I was about to ask him if they had seen anything - they were having a pool party when we left - when he said, "I'm sorry about my dog getting over there..."
My blood turned to ice. With barely a nod, I turned on my heel and went into the house. B was in her bed, and I stated, "It was Princess" and I walked out.
No, this was not over. I marched right back out and, shaking with fury, I said, "FOUR. One is missing, one is dead, and two probably aren't going to make it."
He said, "I'll make it up to you. I'll get you more chickens."
I pause to give you a little back story. One of a flock of scrawny birds kept in a small run with a dirt floor and not much else. Of a sweet goat who was so hungry she escaped and came into our yard to graze. One that includes a very scary monster pit bull being kept in a small enclosure just behind our back fence. It has worn a 2 foot deep trench around the inner perimeter of its pen. A story that involves the neighbors foreclosing on their home, but leaving this creature on the property for a year, with someone driving out after dark every night to feed it, and driving away. The beast was seen loose, roaming their property and we were scurrying to get our children inside and the livestock penned up. When Animal Control was called, and they magically came home just in time, the wife was screaming (presumably) obscenities at me in Spanish and shaking her fist at our free range flock.
They have been back in the house for a while, and Princess, a smaller pit/terrier mix, was just in our yard a week ago terrorizing our bantams.
I had this vision of them setting their dog on our girls while we were gone - for sport and out of spite. And I was half right - it was their dog.
The neighbor gave us some anti-bac livestock spray for their wounds, and the two of them are occupying a large dog crate by our front door.
Am I way out of line here? We love these girls. They not only feed us, they are our pets.
I went into the coop, and she was there, next to a cluster of smashed eggs. Her neck broken. That's when I found myself carrying a dead chicken - with reverence - not by the feet or carelessly.
Joey, one of our white Rockies, was hiding behind some steel fencing. I shooed her out and realized that she had also been attacked.
B came back to me and I asked her to do a head count. 8. Gimley is missing. Everyone else seemed alright.
My daughter immediately went CSI after we placed Blue to rest under the Beauty Berry bush. "I don't see any tracks. It must have been a hawk." But I asked her if she thought a hawk would pursue a hen all the way around the house - we followed the trail of feathers. And would a hawk hang around to continue harassing the rest of the girls?
I came back inside, very upset. My husband was not reacting with alarm or anything. He said it might be a fox, raccoon, or possum. But at 5pm? In broad daylight? He took out the trash, and didn't come back in. I went outside to find him. He was talking across the fence to our neighbor. I was about to ask him if they had seen anything - they were having a pool party when we left - when he said, "I'm sorry about my dog getting over there..."
My blood turned to ice. With barely a nod, I turned on my heel and went into the house. B was in her bed, and I stated, "It was Princess" and I walked out.
No, this was not over. I marched right back out and, shaking with fury, I said, "FOUR. One is missing, one is dead, and two probably aren't going to make it."
He said, "I'll make it up to you. I'll get you more chickens."
I pause to give you a little back story. One of a flock of scrawny birds kept in a small run with a dirt floor and not much else. Of a sweet goat who was so hungry she escaped and came into our yard to graze. One that includes a very scary monster pit bull being kept in a small enclosure just behind our back fence. It has worn a 2 foot deep trench around the inner perimeter of its pen. A story that involves the neighbors foreclosing on their home, but leaving this creature on the property for a year, with someone driving out after dark every night to feed it, and driving away. The beast was seen loose, roaming their property and we were scurrying to get our children inside and the livestock penned up. When Animal Control was called, and they magically came home just in time, the wife was screaming (presumably) obscenities at me in Spanish and shaking her fist at our free range flock.
They have been back in the house for a while, and Princess, a smaller pit/terrier mix, was just in our yard a week ago terrorizing our bantams.
I had this vision of them setting their dog on our girls while we were gone - for sport and out of spite. And I was half right - it was their dog.
The neighbor gave us some anti-bac livestock spray for their wounds, and the two of them are occupying a large dog crate by our front door.
Am I way out of line here? We love these girls. They not only feed us, they are our pets.
