Catastrophe

Each morning when I get up I go into the bathroom and raise the blinds and look out on the new day. This morning, my view was horribly marred, for what I beheld was Wayne's coondog, Lucy, chasing a chicken across the garden! I ran to the back door and acted overjoyed to see her and she (thankfully) came running to me. I brought her inside our enclosed back porch. Sadie, our other dog, was also loose, but her chain had caught on one of the stakes that anchors the flower bed that surrounds the back patio. I went inside and told Wayne the dogs were loose, and they had been killing chickens. (I saw two bodies when I checked to see where Sadie was.) Lucy had broken the snap on her collar, and Sadie's "s" hook that held her chain to the post had separated. (We just replaced Sadie's snap about two weeks ago when she got loose and killed one of my hens.) I dressed and began walking the yard. It was a gruesome task. They killed four of my laying hens, including my two best Silver Laced Wyandottes, and two roosters. There are also two roosters that are wounded, but I think will live. This leaves me with just three hens: two Americaunas and a Brahma. From now on we will be replacing the hardware on the outside dogs every ten months!
Their method of attack: rip the bottom out of the chicken coop. We have now replaced the wire bottom with plywood. We are planning to enclose the sides with plywood as well and just leave small holes for ventilation around the top.

Twinkie Strikes

This morning, I went to work alone. (A rarity since Wayne and I carpool to save resources.) I failed to crate Twinkie before I left for work. This was a B-A-A-A-D thing! I realized about 25 minutes out what I'd done, but it was too late to turn around. I could not have made it to work on time. I arrived at work and immediately asked my director if she could get me a sub for two hours (The time it would take to make the round trip including possible cleanup.) I am SOOOO glad I went ahead and went home. Here was my first clue that she had not outgrown her destructive tendencies:

Take one more step into the living room and this is what you see:

And some more pics for your viewing pleasure:

The picture of innocence. Actually, this is the CULPRIT!!! Jail her and seek the most severe penalty allowed under the law!

Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper! Thankfully, we have slipcovers for the furniture that were not yet on, and I will be able to patch the (one) hole that she made, and put the slipcover on, and no one will be the wiser. Can you believe all that mess is from one hole in a cushion? I thought we weren't gonna have a couch left at all when I first saw the mess.

And now, for what it looked like after several minutes of cleaning:

Whew! I hope this NEVER happens again!!!