Chicken Run

There is a certain event that takes place in my backyard on a weekly basis. I look forward to this event very much and always hurry to get my shoes on and grab Ashlyn so we can go watch. I think only the dogs trump my enjoyment of this fiasco.
It starts off with some clucking and bucking that sounds a little closer than usual. Then the dog’s ears go up and they are off like rockets. As I scramble to get ready, I here the clucking turn into squawking and flapping; the “event” is in full swing.

Once again one of the neighbor’s chickens has flown over our wall and is now being tormented by our dogs. It never takes long for our neighbors hear the squawking and appear above the wall. I then proceeded to capture the chicken and hand it back over the wall.
A few times the neighbors have not appeared; at that point I don’t quite know what to do with the chicken. I have considered just letting our dogs have a free lunch, but I would feel bad for the neighbors. I also though of trying to throw the chicken back over the wall. But the wall is about nine feet high and has barbed wire circling the top. I know I would end up throwing the chicken straight into the wire. So I finally decided to place the chickens on our water tank until the neighbors come.

Since this happens on such a frequent basis I can’t help but think of the movie “Chicken Run”; where the chickens are trying to escape from the farm yard to start a better life for themselves? I’m pretty sure these chickens are trying to escape from our neighbor’s yard.
And I understand why, they see their buddies get behead, plucked and thrown in a pot. They know what’s coming and they want out. Flying over the wall is their only chance.

This morning a chicken was perched on the barbed wire above the wall peering down into our yard. I’m sure she was trying to come up with a plan of how to get across the yard and over our outside wall to freedom. So far only one chicken succeeded in this, she ran across our yard, flew up on our truck, then onto our other neighbor’s roof where freedom awaited her on the street below. Perhaps this has given the others hope.

I’m not sure how long this will go on, but one thing is for sure, eventually we are going to come home to a yard full of chicken feathers and two very happy dogs.
P.S. A special thanks to my Grandma and Grandpa Moore for letting me chase their chickens when I was a kid. Knowing how to catch one has been very useful!