Chicken Rescue

I am a DINOSAUR!

Normally I post about writing or books…but it’s summer and things are slow so I thought I’d treat you all to a chicken story.

Yesterday I was driving my daughter home from her grandmother’s house when she called out from the back seat.

“Chickens!”
“What?”
“Chickens! Over there! The chickens are out!”

About three blocks away from her grandparents’ house, five chickens live in a backyard coop. When she was four or five, it was an adventurous walk to go down and visit them and poke bits of grass through the wire for them to peck at. When she learned to ride a bike, she could zip down to check on the chickens and see how they were faring.

And now they were loose! Emergency!

I pulled over and we hurried back half a block to check. Sure enough, the two white chickens with red crowns were pecking happily outside the pen. The single brown one and two black-and-white speckled ones, apparently more peaceful, were still inside the coop.

My daughter went up to knock on the back door to let the owners know their chickens were out. No answer.

Okay. Chicken rescue was underway!

I thought I could just pick them up and toss them gently back into the pen. I edged toward one. It eyed me and edged away.

Now, I have just been listening to a podcast all about dinosaurs. And it was heavy on the “birds are really dinosaurs” thing. And this chicken was really giving me a very nasty glare. The closer I got, the more vicious its claws looked. Velociraptor vicious. Seriously. I inched a tiny bit near and it sprinted away on bright yellow legs that looked very muscular indeed.

No way was I going to be able to pick this tiny little T. rex up.

It led me on a chicken-chase around the coop twice before I had the bright idea of telling my girl to stand by the coop entrance. I shuffled behind the two chickens and waved my arms. She blocked them when they tried to dart to one side, and between us we whooshed them into the coop and shut the door smartly. The three in-coop chickens did not make a break for it. Success!

It’s not often that my work days are interrupted by chicken rescue.  Very exhilarating, really.

We drove away quickly just in case they found whatever hole in the fence let them escape in the first place. It would just be too stressful to go through the whole thing again.