**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps**********

The night before being sent to the hospital…..

I was (again) defending the homestead…outside…in the dark…in my pajamas…in the mud…after a storm…..

But I’m getting ahead of myself…..

At my normal bedtime…while conducting my “normal night time check-list”…..

…..I noticed that there was only ONE (1) (une) (uno) twitchy duck in the coop(?)…..

…..alarms and whistles were set off…additionally there were only a minimal amount of quaking chickens in the coop too…..

…..most of them were piled on top of Guillaume on the highest perch…..

I immediately grabbed my flashlight…and ran outside…..

I saw the herd of Runner Ducks nervously (aimlessly) toddling around the pasture in the quickly waning light…..

Fortunately…I was successful at gathering them with the flashlight beam…and herding them towards the coop…where they ultimately tripped and tumbled inside…..

Once they were in…I shut the coop door…and hurried back to the pasture to check for any stragglers or bodies…..

…..the light was fading quickly…..

…..but there were (unfortunately) several tell-tale “poofs” of feathers in multiple areas of the front yard…..

…..not good…never ever good…..

I checked and identified the feather-coloring…..

…..unfortunately…it was a perfect match for Ceasar’s feathers…..

…..sigh…..

I kept searching…..

…..I had to go back inside to swap out flashlights…(why is it always in emergencies that the stupid flashlights decide to crap out?)…..

Unfortunately…when I came back outside with a brighter flashlight…I found Caesar…and not in the best of shape…not munched on yet…but succinctly already snuffed out…..

…..I also found the thoroughly cleaned out skin of our only Speckled Sussex hen…..

No rigor…both bodies smelled like they were freshly killed…(and yes…I sniffed them)…..

Caesar & the hen still had their heads…(which helps identify the perpetrator—weasle-types eat the head first)–(or at lease that’s what my Dad told me)…..

…..(Weasel Behavior)…..

…..there were multiple “poofs”…and the hen was decimated…but he wasn’t…..

I picked up Caesar and the hen…and put them in an empty feed bag in the garage…I figured whoever had run rough-shod over my poultry was going to come back later for a Caesar-meal…..

The next day…my older daughter made the observation that the multiple “poofs” probably meant he was trying to defend his hen…..

…..he wasn’t successful…..

I know that one of the coop’s cement boards had deteriorated and needs replacing…but I thought I had blocked it adequately…and all of these “poofs” were outside the coop…..

…..but apparently that wasn’t the case…..

I went back into the house…went to bed…(with the light on)…and the coop closed…with all the remaining ducks and chickens safely(?) locked inside…..

And I read my book…and waited…..

He was a good rooster…not a great rooster…but a very good rooster…..

…..and he will be missed…..

I think he went trying to defend his girls…..

………….***(to be continued)***(there’s just too much for one post)***………….

 

 

 

 

#weasels #raccoons

#hardiebackercementboard #permabasecementboard #homedepot #lowes #stringerstreamlight

#speckledsussexchicken #raccoon #chickencoop #chickenpredators #durockcementboard #cementboard