so lucky
Almost Self-Reliant
Tuesday morning my neighbor Sarah knocked on our door, saying that her inside dog had gotten off the leash and bolted to our yard. The dog got one of my chickens, and although she didn't know for sure if it was dead, she offered to pay for it, and apologized profusely. We had a hard time putting the pieces of the puzzle together, but apparently the large dog broke through my temporary fence, and was able to get my White Plymouth Rock rooster, Buck, formerly known as Gertie. There were white feathers everywhere!! Sarah said the dog brought Buck through two fields, back to her house, about a tenth of a mile away. Sarah realized what the dog had in her mouth and made her drop it. My roo Buck got away and tried to come home. Sarah tried to follow Buck home, (and to tell us about it) but lost track of him when he veered off the gravel road into the weeds. After my DH and I searched the yard, corn field, road, ditch, etc, we gave up for the day. The girls he left behind were scared, and skittish all day. I reasoned that if Buck was able to walk a tenth of a mile, he might not be injured too badly, but I still worried about him being wounded, scared and out in the heat all day. (only 94 that day) Well, about 6:30 here he comes, walking rather gingerly into the yard from the other side of the gravel road that sides our property. We could tell he was missing a lot of feathers and his wing was drooping badly. Rather than stress him more (He is not an affectionate bird, like some of my others are) we decided to wait till morning to catch him and examine him. When we did check him out, we found patches of feathers missing, a badly bruised wing, but no broken bones. No broken skin under the wing that we could find. We trimmed the wing feathers to keep them from dragging the ground, and let him be. Today the skin under his wing looks terrible, blackish/greenish bruised swollen, but he has not stopped eating, hanging with the girls and pooping. He is able to get up on the roost at night. I think he just may make it. Now the ironic thing is, I had just been trying to decide how to go about culling him, as I have no use for a rooster, and he was getting a little to roosterish. Now, I don't know.... If he doesn't get too nasty, I think he has proven that he is a good protector for the girls. The neighbor dog is not a killer, obviously, just a retriever. One thing: I have a new respect for chicken smarts, as Buck found his way home from being taken on a very stressful journey!
