- Apr 15, 2009
- 6,770
- 236
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...But somehow that's exactly what ended up happening.
I went out first thing this morning to do the usual chicken chores- open the pop door, fill the feeders, change the water. It was early and I hadn't had the pot of coffee I normally require to function like a productive member of society. I turned the outside spigot on to fill the water bowls up, and there was no water coming from my hose, but I heard an ominous hissing noise from behind the coop. The hose runs behind the coop, so I walked around and saw that my hose had an impressive leak which was just spewing water everywhere. Clearly the hose had gotten broken somehow. Curious.
I shut down the water and went to investigate. The hose was apparently crushed by a huge rock that had fallen out of the rock wall that backs up to my coop. Now, how on Earth did that rock fall? The rock is large enough that I am going to need my tractor to put it back in place, so I am looking at it trying to figure out how it could have gotten dislodged.
That was when I found the large opossum pinned under the rock. It was alive, but obviously not walking away from this. I almost had a heart attack it surprised me so much. I jumped back so fast I landed on my butt in the mud. Unfortunately, his injuries were not conducive with life, so he was quickly dispatched with a .22 to the head. I had to use a pry bar to lever the rock up enough to remove him from underneath.
I am thrilled he is gone because I have a wild mallard raising a batch of 6 brand new babies in my yard, but I am still so shocked by the randomness of his accident. He must have been walking along the rock wall next to my fence, hit that unstable stone, and the whole thing collapsed on top of him. One less potential problem, I guess.
Still, what a way to start the day.
I went out first thing this morning to do the usual chicken chores- open the pop door, fill the feeders, change the water. It was early and I hadn't had the pot of coffee I normally require to function like a productive member of society. I turned the outside spigot on to fill the water bowls up, and there was no water coming from my hose, but I heard an ominous hissing noise from behind the coop. The hose runs behind the coop, so I walked around and saw that my hose had an impressive leak which was just spewing water everywhere. Clearly the hose had gotten broken somehow. Curious.
I shut down the water and went to investigate. The hose was apparently crushed by a huge rock that had fallen out of the rock wall that backs up to my coop. Now, how on Earth did that rock fall? The rock is large enough that I am going to need my tractor to put it back in place, so I am looking at it trying to figure out how it could have gotten dislodged.
That was when I found the large opossum pinned under the rock. It was alive, but obviously not walking away from this. I almost had a heart attack it surprised me so much. I jumped back so fast I landed on my butt in the mud. Unfortunately, his injuries were not conducive with life, so he was quickly dispatched with a .22 to the head. I had to use a pry bar to lever the rock up enough to remove him from underneath.
I am thrilled he is gone because I have a wild mallard raising a batch of 6 brand new babies in my yard, but I am still so shocked by the randomness of his accident. He must have been walking along the rock wall next to my fence, hit that unstable stone, and the whole thing collapsed on top of him. One less potential problem, I guess.
Still, what a way to start the day.
