It was a beautiful Sunday morning when I went out to move the chicks from the garage where they spend the night. About halfway there, I saw Meeko come around the side of the garage. After verbally expressing my irritation with him, and physically putting him back in his pen, I went back to my original plan: I got the cage full of chicks and sat them outside. I made sure they had food and water, and went back to the house. About thirty minutes later, the phone rang. It was Mrs. “A”.

“Do you have your baby chicks in that little cage?” she asked.
“Yes…”
“Well, your big black dog has got that cage, and he’ll kill ’em”
“Okay, thanks!”

I dropped the phone and ran outside, screaming for Meeko as I went. The cage was not where I left it. Following a path that would take me to Mrs. “A”‘s line of sight, and still yelling for and at Meeko, I found him (he was actually coming to me) and the cage.

The cage was upside down, and three of the five chicks  were still inside. One of those was dead. I don’t really remember a whole lot of the next few minutes. I did get Meeko back in the pen, and the cage turned right side up. Then I went to look for the other chicks. About that time, I heard Ed inside the house (he had been asleep…Friday and Saturday are late nights for him), and met him as he was coming out the door; dead chick in my hand. He took that one and the one other that we found, and headed (still barefoot) out to the dog pen.  That left me with the task I dreaded most: telling Katherine.

I went to her room and told her to  wake up. She saw my face and asked what was wrong. I told her Meeko killed three of the chicks, and she asked which ones. I told her I wasn’t sure and she flew out of her bed crying “my babies…my babies!”  The little chick that so loved to roost in her hair was one of the casualties. She found the last missing chick, and when Ed came back from chastising Meeko (which I believe included some aversion therapy) and tying him up inside the pen, we found a small box and had an impromptu chicken funeral.

When I said there would be more chicken stories,  I expected there would be some like this, but I wasn’t expecting them so soon.

Connie