~first freeze~

~~~~~

Early morning.  We had a freeze last night.  Anything without protection bit the dust.

Mid-day.  The lab, as usual, met today.  A student, one who has a presentation Monday for a seminar course, went through her slides for us.

Late afternoon.  My Mother's 'memorial' (aka gravestone) was put in place.  My Father went to see it - he told me that it was beautiful.  His voice sounded so sad.

Early evening.  The person who bought the place next door put up a small chicken coop a few feet from the fence on the side of my property.  He put two hens in there.  I've been calling it 'dog TV' - my dogs were obsessed with it for a few days, but for the last few days had seemed to be used to the...clucking.

My dogs are bird dogs.

Tonight when I got home and let the dogs out, Annabelle and The Stan rushed to the fence.  It seems that one of the hens had escaped the coop - and was racing back and forth along the fence. 

Right along the fence. 

And it was poking it's head through the wire (farm type fencing) every few squares.

Within seconds, literally, Annabelle had bitten the head off of the hen.

I now fully understand the expression 'running around like a chicken with it's head cut off'.

(I didn't need to fully understand that expression.)

Late evening.  Far less dramatic, thank God.   

 

Comments

[Taylor]

Oh dear! That will teach them to keep the chickens in a different part of the yard...

I hope it doesn't cause problems with your new neighbors!

[Benjamin]

OMG on you serious? This isn't a joke? What did the neighbor say? Have any pictures? (not serious, you know, on that last one)

[Pam]

Taylor and Benjamin - I haven't spoken to the new neighbor yet. He doesn't live there yet, it's a 'fixer-upper' that he's working on. I hope to talk to him Saturday, confess my dogs sins - I did talk with him a week or so ago and tell him that my dogs were obsessed with his two hens, and sort of warned him. I had NO IDEA that the chicken would be so...stupid...and that instead of walking two inches away from the fence (where she would have been safe) that she instead got closer to the fence and stuck her lovely head through the wire mesh (my dogs heads couldn't fit through it).

And no Benjamin, I wish it was a joke - but it wasn't. It's my life with The Pointer Sisters.

[Layanee]

Well, chickens are pretty stupid except for Robin's. How could the dog resist but...ugh! I think the new owner should perhaps move the chicken house but, even then, dogs and chickens don't really mix.

[Pam]

Layanee, I'm with you. I confessed my dog's sins yesterday - and the guy said first 'Chickens are stupid.' It's gonna me a stressful mix I'm afraid.

[Kim]

Well, at least he seemed pretty reasonable? :) Maybe he'll want to think about putting something a little more solid along that lower foot of the fence... you know, just in case. Nice of you to confess to him so he doesn't have to worry, but... I really hope he's reasonable enough to refuse your offer of buying him a new hen. Like you said, your dogs couldn't get their heads through the fence, so methinks it's the chicken's fault!

And, I'm sorry, but I have to ask since I'm curious... did she eat the head? (Hey, at least I waited until after most other people stopped by and read the comments...)

[Pam]

Kim, he did refuse my offer of a new hen (mainly because it ends up that he gets them for free from his Dad). And no - the head wasn't eaten by the dogs - but I think it's more because I got them inside quickly, before they could. They've been obsessed with the area along the fence where 'it' happened ever since. It's a pain.

[Annie in Austin]

Oh, Pam - glad the neighbor guy realizes the general category of bird brains includes chickens!

Somehow your post made me think of that Whack a mole game where the animal head pops up and gets whacked with a hammer... could imagine the hen's head coming in and out of various spots on the fence until a Pointer Sister won the game.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose