Last night as hubby and I were returning from Nashville, we got a call on the cell. Our oldest told us that a dog was after our chickens. UGH! I couldn't believe it. They are almost at laying age. We had lost our last batch of laying hens to a stray dog in April. Without hesitation this time though, we told him to get the gun. We've learned the hard way that you have to defend your flock and that no amount of dog food can protect them from a starving stray. By the time he got the gun out of the gun safe though, the stray was gone. Our chicken tractor had held up to the challenge and our dogs (who were in the house) had effectively scared the dog off with their barking threats. The boys moved the chicken tractor closer to the house and then let our dogs outside to guard the territory.
The boys were amazed to see the dogs guarding instincts kick in. They sniffed and circled and that rascal dog didn't come back. You should have seen our Hank dog. We've lovingly called him Hank the Cowardly Dog, but he seemed to just be so proud of himself protecting the flock last night. I do believe his scrappy, skinny chest was puffed with pride! So so far, there's a happy ending to our chicken saga.
Unfortunately though, we also had a sad ending tonight. One of the 4 kittens that we adopted about a month ago died. Little Miss Princess was the runt of the litter and had just totally stolen all of our hearts (especially our youngest!). We thought she was just a dainty little girl, but as the weeks passed we started to wonder if something might be wrong with her since the other kittens seemed to be growing so much more than her. While we were on vacation our dutiful farm sitter called and reported that they were quite worried about her. Thought she was constipated and wormy, but they did what they could to help her out and thought they saw improvement. Once we got home, we could see what they were talking about - what a difference a week had made. We explained what was going on to the vet and he gave us some medicine to give her. We thought it was helping since her tummy didn't seem to be as bloated, but unfortunately something went wrong. It was so sad to have to break the news to our youngest. He handled it pretty well although he's a bit concerned for the other kitties.
So we're dealing with the realities of farm life tonight and just resting in the fact that God is good all the time - no matter our circumstance.
As Job said in Job 1:21,
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised."
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• Sep. 20, 2006 - Poor, sweet kitty!
Glad to see your chickens survived. I hope y'all get eggs soon!