Had some chicken excitement just now!! I let the girls out loose for some yard time, since we're home... Heard some LOUD alarm clucking and ruckus and looked out to see an orange tom cat chasing them. He came in through the opening at the very back where the missing fence brace (I HAD a brace, but the neighbors took it when they made a barrier outside the fence to keep their dog from leaving their yard) is allowing an opening between the blue house next door and my sagging *** fence. Needs to be fixed, obviously. Darn it all. Sooner than I had budgeted for...
Hubs heard the noise too, and opened the living room window to yell out the back, which sent the cat fleeing. In the meantime, however, I had an Australorp up on the fence out to the river, and a Marans on the fence by the bird feeder (also down to the river), and slowing making her way around the corner to the common fence with the Dog Owners to the north!!! (these neighbors are nice people, but they don't take wonderful care of their dogs, which are always out and always barking, for hours and hours at a stretch. They told me one of their dogs killed some of their chickens before they got rid of the rest of them...) Do NOT want my chickens, lovely expensive chickens!!! in that yard. At all.
Holy Schnikies, now what! My girls are not hand tame for me, since I work full time, and I got them as started pullets... I put some scratch on the ground to see if that would get the australorp off the ****** fence. Yes, but not in the run. She tried to get in the run, but missed the door, and started to go under the house (raccoons knocked down the barrier last night), which would mean she could go out front. To a busy and speedy road. Tossed a LOT of scratch in the run, the other 4 went in, and she followed them. Closed the door. Went to go find the Marans. She was ON the common fence, looking down at their ground. I grabbed a towel from inside (to slap around) and went out front, to try to herd her around back again. I thumped on the fence, which made the dogs bark up a storm. She hunkered down on the fence. I walked up very slowly, and was able to grab her feet as she sat on the fence, well above my head. I picked her up, she flapped a little bit, I held her close and she settled down, and I put the towel over her head, and carried her through the house to put her back in the run. I've blocked off the wide gate so the chickens don't go out the driveway, and it's too heavy for me to lift with one hand, so through the house was a lot easier.
Marans now reunited with her buds in the pen, and the pen is now locked. No more out time for them unless I'm out there gardening.
I was in the front of the house when the chickens sounded off, so I don't know if the cat even got close to them. I don't think so. Nobody's feathers look disrupted, there's no blood to be seen, and they settled down within 5 minutes of the cat leaving. Nobody looks hurt, just a little upset.
Me?? I'm a lot upset. I really and truly did not want to lose a bird to the dogs next door, the stray cat, or the road out front. I'm still feeling the adrenalin rush...
