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I’ll admit I was tempted to go with an AFLAC or a Landshark theme for this post. The ducks were tap, tap, tapping at the door while Madeleine and I were sitting at my computer. They either were attacking their reflections or are simply offended by the door that lets the dogs in and out of their world.

This morning I killed another chicken. I’ve lost count. Maybe 60 chickens. These hurt, though. Pollack escaped from the pasture, killing four chickens and leaving four others so wounded I had to finish them off.

Poor Doris. Poor Trick Chicken.

It was all my fault. I should have brought the dogs in before leaving for the store. I should have pounded a t-post into the ground next to the gate. Pollack is strong and skinny. Should of… should of…

Laura had called me while I was out and said it was horrible. She was right. Feathers everywhere. Four dead birds in the coop. The ducks escaped damage; I’m guessing the chief male duck confronted Pollack. He has seen one duck die and another nearly strangled to death. He confronts the dogs, chases Jack around the cars and generally let’s it be known no ducks will be hurt on his watch.

I only wish I had his sense of responsibility.

I failed those eight birds.

That means you probably shouldn’t look, Coleman.
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The dogs have been barking off and on all afternoon, and being paranoid about the neighbor’s dog we kept poking our heads out to see if he was here. Well, I finally decided it was time to stop being stressed about the dog and go try to close up the birds a little early…

This is who I found….

And this is what he was doing…

Of course, Scott had gone to the store, so I just got my pictures taken. When Scott got back he got Mr. ‘Possum out of the hen house…

It was a battle of epic proportions.

There is a dog that lives across the road from us. He has now visited our property and done damage at least 4 separate times. The first time he dislocated the rooster’s leg making him forever the Gimpy Bird, he plucked Doris’s feathers and her back is still bald, he killed one of the Crazy White Hens a couple of weeks ago, and today he hurt one of my beloved Runner Ducks. He got one of the males and by the look of the yard he beat the crap out of it for a while. I found a lot of interesting impressions in the snow and some blood spatter.

Normally I can’t catch the ducks by myself, but the duck that was attacked today was easy since he was in shock when I found him. He has several deep punctures which Scott and I treated with iodine. He’s been returned to the flock. We’ll see how he does. I think the fact that it is cold gives him a fighting chance since there are no flies to lay eggs in his wounds.

When the dog killed one of the hens I got angry and called animal control. Since then the dog owners have at least been good about coming and getting their dog (now dogs) when it (now they) get out. I was hoping that would be enough. I’ve gone out twice to help the kid because the new dog doesn’t seem to even have a collar so I take him a leash and he brings it back when he’s done. I asked him today if the dog got to any of the birds and he said “no.” Maybe he hadn’t seen.

I really like allowing my birds to free range (they find a lot of their own food in warm weather which makes the eggs wonderful), but I think we are going to have to seriously consider putting up some good, solid fencing… or buy a gun. We can’t afford to do either right now.

Here is the duck after we treated his wounds.