Monday, December 1, 2008

Roller Coaster, Check; SeeSaw, Check; Pendulum, CHECK

Oh, the back-and-forth of country life.

A couple of weeks ago, I shoveled up hens with my neighbor and lamented the not knowing to whom those bad chicken-eating dogs belonged.

Then, a week and a half ago, I met the kind and sweet owners of those bloodthirsty dogs and we commisserated on the whole tragedy. Promises and phone numbers were exchanged, people. Their kennel was to be shored up; our chickens were to be safe evermore.

KL gave me new hens, and, lo, they were nicer than the ones who went to chicken heaven. They started laying. All was good. For a day and a half.

Of course, the bad dogs kept coming back. They sniffed around the chicken yard and laughed at the memories of the big party they'd had. I kept the hens locked inside.

I spoke to the neighbors again. They threw up their hands in despair. The dogs are escape artists! They can't be contained! And we have to go to work every once in a while. But look! They're so sweet. We'll make the kennel FORT KNOX, we swear.

I swear, too. But only when pushed to the very limit.

Dog break-in number four occurred this morning at 10:00 in direct view of my kitchen window. I was unpacking from our four-day trip. The girls were all studying and the hens were all sunning themselves to kick off December properly.

Little did the feathered ones know how thin that winter sunshine really is. Nay, even the DOGS had no idea. Because this chicky had HAD it.

She hurt her healing hip with the wrestling of an injured hen OUT OF THE MOUTH of the worst dog. Then she tripped while throwing the bad dogs into her kennel. She cussed up a storm (sharky! criminy! like that) remembering that she had locked those dogs in there before and it did exactly no good. So then she further wrenched herself out of whack and into real pain by tying the dogs to the back deck.

Oh, yes, she did.

Then she called the nice neighbors. Who, of course, were not home. Then she called the nice sheriff.

And the pendulum swung a little bit toward normal.

Did you notice how I had to slip into the third person there? It was too grisly to have been me, I think.

Speaking of grisly, we have a mostly featherless but live hen in a towel-lined box our laundry room. Anyone know what to do about that?

6 comments:

Alexis said...

Keep her warm and make her some scrambled eggs. She'll be back to her fantastic self in no time! (But probably won't lay for you for awhile... hmph! Darned dogs!!)
- A side note, my word verification is: Trample How appropriate.

HonuGirl said...

Awww... poor thing. Take care of you too, chickie!! Mr. Advil is your friend... you are so brave and totally rock in the world of Mission Impossible -- Evil Dog Battle 4! (Kind of like Rambo, only far more entertaining and rated PG)

Misty said...

oh man... there is no way, chickens or not, that those dogs should be running around loose. I hope the sheriff really does something.

Barb Matijevich said...

I hate those dogs and their irresponsible owners. I mean, my neighbor complained because my dying dog was pooping in her yard, even though I was out there cleaning it up and I can assure you, it never happened again. She pooped in my HOUSE but not in their yard. They should have kept those dogs in the house. You did the right thing.

Paula said...

Ummm, those little doggies would be staring at the business end of a gun barrel if they were at my place. Neighbors, schmabors, blow those little murderers away!

Katie said...

Ahem! The words I would use are not in the least PG.

Dirty dogs!!

Way to go farmsista'!