Still recovering from last night's chicken drama. *UPDATE--> pix*

[Suellyn]

A little background: To say that my 4 yr old daughter, Sami, loves her pet Serama "Flower" is the understatement of the year, and I swear, it is MUTUAL... Flower will actively seek out Sami, and is never happier then when she is on her lap. They watch TV together, swing (gently!) on a swing together, play/scratch in sand box together, you name it! That little birdie actually fusses & clucks when Sami walks away, until she comes back and scoops her up. It's actually pretty amazing.

Anyway, we had Flower and a couple of her Silkie friends in the outdoor run yesterday enjoying the warm weather, and Flower escaped. It had only been about 20 minutes since we had last checked on them, BUT it was dusk, and she is a GOOD flyer, plus black and TINY... I was absolutely SICK on my DD's behalf.. I had my husband distract the girls (we also have a 7 yr old) while I discreetly but frantically started searching our 2 acres & surrounding yards, woods, trees, etc... No Flower ANYWHERE, and she is currently an "indoor chicken" at night (until permanent coop is finished), has never "free ranged" without direct supervision (lots of hawks here!), and never spent the night outside, let alone outside ALONE and UNPROTECTED (!!!).

I was outside for hours, with a flashlight AND a Silkie.. was hoping she would hear her Silkie friend and answer back -yes, I know it was HIGHLY UNLIKELY since it was then dark out, PLUS the silly Silkie just kept falling asleep in my arms... USELESS (yes, CUTE, but still USELESS!!), but anyway, I was desperate.

Just as I was giving up & trying to imagine how I was going to tell Sami that Flower is "lost", i noticed that my husband's garage doors were closed, they had been open earlier in the evening. Flower has never been in there in her life, and it is pretty far from her outdoor run, but I wanted to leave "no stone unturned" so went in to check "just in case", and... THERE SHE WAS!!!!!! Up in the rafters, at least 12 feet in the air, above my hubby's "project truck", fast asleep.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to do some serious climbing, up the "pull-down" ladder steps, then over onto the truck roof, thank GOODNESS she is so tame; stepped right onto my hand then rode on my shoulder for the climb back DOWN... I could have cried or kissed her (okay, actually I did a little of BOTH), never in my life would I have dreamed I would be so happy to see a chicken (!!!).

Soooooooo... all's well that ends well, but needless to say I have reinforced the run (I think I know where she got out), AND Sami is wondering why I am letting her feed Flower a few "sugary junk food" donut pieces this morning!!!

 

[sred98]

Thank goodness the silly girl was inside safe and sound!

Glad you thought to check in there! I've had that happen before and it is heart-stopping!

on the donut treats!

Shelly

 

[crtrlovr]

Whew! Holding my breath there... I do SO love a happy ending! Congrats on finding your adventurer!

 

[WriterofWords]

That is so cute, I went through that with Nugget and Woo when they were both tiny. Woo went missing and Nugget was inconsolable, this is when Woo was the roo and Nugget the hen? LOL little did we know Woo was the hen and would stay tiny and Nugget the roo and was over sized. I walked everywhere with Nugget on my shoulder screaming for Woo in the dark, I was calling, Nugget was calling, no Woo. Woo turned up the next day, in front of the fence and had wounds all over her little naked neck, something had grabbed her obviously and taken off with her. Nugget was a mess until Woo returned and they are still inseparable.
I'm so glad you had a happy ending!

 

[bethandjoeync]

so glad you found her, it is very hard to tell your child that a pet so beloved is lost or dead. one of our cats was hit by a car right at the end of our drive way, and buzzards were making a racket, needless to say we told him what happened and he cried (6 at the time). but I figure he will learn sooner or later that these things happen if animals go where they aren't supposed to.

I'll bet you will check every little whole in the fence to make sure they can't escape. if you're like me you count your chickens everytime you see them.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Whew! Happy ending! What a nailbiter!

 

[SpringChickens]

So glad you found her!!!

I was putting my girls in the other night, and I realized that I was missing 3! When I brought a flashlight out, I found them in a downed cedar limb about 100 feet from their coop. Silly chickens!!

 

[georgialee]

awww.... you're such a good people AND chicken mom! They're both so lucky!

 

[thechickenchick]

Wow! That is such a sweet story. What a great chicken/child Mama you are! It makes me feel a little more sane, or at least not alone!

Shortly after we moved to the country my cat Nikki disappeared. It was dark, late and 18 below zero when I got home from work. She had been missing 2 days. I just could not stand the thought of her being lost and freezing to death.

So I grabbed a flashlight and bundled up. Yep! The rest of the family sat in the nice warm house and shook their heads!!

Well I started meowing (talking) to her! Finally I could hear her in the distance. She would meow, I would meow. The wind was blowing snow all around, making it hard to see and hear. DH hollered at me to come in.

Nope! I said, I hear her, sounds like she is in the trees. We have a grove of trees that has been here for 100 years. The under growth is so thick it is amazing anything can get in there.
DH knew I wasn't going to give up so he went and got our pickup, put it in 4 wheel drive and parked it in a snow bank with the lights shining in the area where I thought I heard her.

Finally I spotted her way back in the trees!

So I laid on my stomach and did the ole army crawl all the way back there. I held onto that silly cat for dear life while I backed out if there. Then I handed her to DH, he was waiting at the edge of the trees for his freezing, wet, snowy crazy cat lady!!!

 

[tunaoftheland]

oh, I'm so glad it had a happy ending!! I always check sheds and garages first if someone goes missing, my cat got locked in my neighbors garage and it was a couple of days before we finally found her. Flower probably doesn't know what the fuss is about either, I bet she had a grand ole time