Most of you know I have chickens, ducks and geese and they are part of my passion. When life throws me a curve ball I go outside find a spot in the shade and watch my critters. In a matter of moments I can feel the days frustrations fade away if only for a little while....
So imagine my horror, when early in the morning as first light was hitting the grass, I let my little dog Mollie go out for her morning romp and saw a dead goose and feathers all over the place. Then over by the rabbit barn I heard a strange dog bark........ohh!! my God!!! I got Mollie back in the house threw my clothes on as I ran screaming through the house for Dale and Josh to get up, we have strange dogs in the yard. We are not strangers to other animals in the yard but we do take extra precautions to maintain our fence line. Once outside we were accosted by barking and growling dogs in our own yard, and the fog was rolling in......
Oklahoma, is in a bad drought one like most of the younger then the 1930's crowd has only heard of, we haven;t had rain in a couple of months not a real rain. The night before we had a thunderstorm and I guess it spooked a lot of the animals. Our own cats ( we have 2) ran and hide under the beds, Mollie stood and barked at the sky light every time lighting flashed or thunder boomed. The angora goats hid in the barn as did Jax the herding dog.......so they were witness to nothing.
Probably, the two dogs that dug under the fence were just trying to escape the storms wrath. Once the storm was over and daylight found them in a strange yard with all kinds of feathered animals just waking to the daylight hours, they decided to give chase. They killed in all 2 full grown Chinese geese (Hank and Hun), I will tell you about Hank later. They killed 2 of my Old English Call Ducks, 2 are hurt, and the other 2 flew over the fence into the front yard. We think the two hurt ones will survive, the two in the front yard gave a loud call when they heard us and were shooed back into the back yard. My beautiful, Gold Laced Cochin Bantams are all dead. I have raised these chickens for 20 years so we go back several generations. They are my pride and joy, Joshua won many a ribbon with at Fairs and 4-H shows with them. I lost them all, 20 dead chickens and not a one was eaten. I found one still alive under a thorny old rose bush and 2 more are missing.
I had 9 young chicks in a separate pen, with a cover on the top, the dogs tried to dig under the pen to get to them but did not succeed. I have them at least to carry on the line, next year I will find some more to go with them. It doesn't bring back Hank and Hun, and it doesn't diminish the fact that I have lost so much. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up feathers and burying or attending to the wounded. I'm not a crazy person I just love my animals. The chickens lived in a barn with a heater and a fan, they had heated water in the winter time and a light that came on to give them more daylight hours. My rabbits live in a barn with heat and air-conditioning. The goats also have a swamp cooler and heat lights if they are needed. I pamper my pets all of them..... they have clean bedding, hay and grain and it is a lot of work.
I was sick most of the rest of the day, literally sick, throwing up and upset stomach.....today I am just sad. My yard is empty...........no honking geese, or quacking ducks, no chickens scratching in the grass. The cats got to go outside for the first time today and even they seem to sense something is not right. They usually stay outside awhile and play but they came back in the house with me after I checked on the wounded ducks. I don't know what else to say.....I'm just a big gooey glob right now...........
We will try to get some work done out in the wood barn later tonight........
So imagine my horror, when early in the morning as first light was hitting the grass, I let my little dog Mollie go out for her morning romp and saw a dead goose and feathers all over the place. Then over by the rabbit barn I heard a strange dog bark........ohh!! my God!!! I got Mollie back in the house threw my clothes on as I ran screaming through the house for Dale and Josh to get up, we have strange dogs in the yard. We are not strangers to other animals in the yard but we do take extra precautions to maintain our fence line. Once outside we were accosted by barking and growling dogs in our own yard, and the fog was rolling in......
Oklahoma, is in a bad drought one like most of the younger then the 1930's crowd has only heard of, we haven;t had rain in a couple of months not a real rain. The night before we had a thunderstorm and I guess it spooked a lot of the animals. Our own cats ( we have 2) ran and hide under the beds, Mollie stood and barked at the sky light every time lighting flashed or thunder boomed. The angora goats hid in the barn as did Jax the herding dog.......so they were witness to nothing.
Probably, the two dogs that dug under the fence were just trying to escape the storms wrath. Once the storm was over and daylight found them in a strange yard with all kinds of feathered animals just waking to the daylight hours, they decided to give chase. They killed in all 2 full grown Chinese geese (Hank and Hun), I will tell you about Hank later. They killed 2 of my Old English Call Ducks, 2 are hurt, and the other 2 flew over the fence into the front yard. We think the two hurt ones will survive, the two in the front yard gave a loud call when they heard us and were shooed back into the back yard. My beautiful, Gold Laced Cochin Bantams are all dead. I have raised these chickens for 20 years so we go back several generations. They are my pride and joy, Joshua won many a ribbon with at Fairs and 4-H shows with them. I lost them all, 20 dead chickens and not a one was eaten. I found one still alive under a thorny old rose bush and 2 more are missing. I had 9 young chicks in a separate pen, with a cover on the top, the dogs tried to dig under the pen to get to them but did not succeed. I have them at least to carry on the line, next year I will find some more to go with them. It doesn't bring back Hank and Hun, and it doesn't diminish the fact that I have lost so much. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up feathers and burying or attending to the wounded. I'm not a crazy person I just love my animals. The chickens lived in a barn with a heater and a fan, they had heated water in the winter time and a light that came on to give them more daylight hours. My rabbits live in a barn with heat and air-conditioning. The goats also have a swamp cooler and heat lights if they are needed. I pamper my pets all of them..... they have clean bedding, hay and grain and it is a lot of work.
I was sick most of the rest of the day, literally sick, throwing up and upset stomach.....today I am just sad. My yard is empty...........no honking geese, or quacking ducks, no chickens scratching in the grass. The cats got to go outside for the first time today and even they seem to sense something is not right. They usually stay outside awhile and play but they came back in the house with me after I checked on the wounded ducks. I don't know what else to say.....I'm just a big gooey glob right now...........
We will try to get some work done out in the wood barn later tonight........
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