Never turn your back

[Dempsy's Mom]

I stepped in the house for just a second to change into sandals last Saturday.  Dempsy was out in the tree belt barking and Elsie was on her way to see what Demps had found ... at least that was the direction that she was heading last I saw her.  I was only in the entryway about a half a minute and when I walked out Elsie was proudly displaying my favorite chicken between her two front paws while feathers filled the yard as if a feather pillow had exploded.  I yelled and ran over and pulled her off, spanked her once firmly on the rump, pulled a few remaining feather from her mouth and tied her up on her lead.  Went back to my bird.  Picked up Goldie.  She was in sad shape.  Thought maybe I should put her out of her misery, but decided I would lie her in the shade while I run another errand and then I will decide.  I felt horrible.  It was my fault.  I should of known better.

It was a nice day.  Did my errand and returned.  Poor Goldie was still as I left her.  Goldie would come to me. She was too trusting.  She was my lead bird when it came time to put my birds in at night.  I would call for Goldie and she would come running and then the others would follow.  I was going to miss my feathered friend.  I went to the coop to do something - I don't remember what - and when I stepped out of the coop - OH MY GOD!  There Goldie was.  She was ... well somewhat, walking toward the coop.  I could not believe it!  I was so very happy.  I stepped aside and Goldie, after a couple tries, hopped in the coop.  I herded the other chickens in and got everybody situated for the night.   So far Goldie is doing great.  She's not laying any eggs, but she is eating and drinking.  Looks a bit tough, to say the least, but Elsie did not succeed. 

PS:  I have 6 more baby chicks up in the spare bedroom.  They are so cute.  They have wings now and are just staring to get their tail feathers.  Soon they will go out.  I have cardboard down and a big dog cage over the cardboard.  Elsie and Dempsy go in and look at them, under my supervision.  Elsie says she would like a little chicken nugget.

[Sam I Am]

So glad Goldie has so far survived her traumatic take down. Wow....perhaps Elsie just wanted to play...like she does with Kitty...I rather doubt that though. Terriers...love um but wow, that instinct is always there.

crossing my fingers that Goldie's egg laying days will resume after this near death experience!

The farm manager will keep Elsie in line...ummmm ...hopefully....unless Demps fancies a nugget also.

 

[pkcrossley]

i was on the edge of my seat. i hope goldie continues her recovery. i completely understand the importance of goldie. my great-grandmother had her leading hens, all with names, personalities. of course they sometimes ended upon the table anyway, but they had a good chance of outliving everybody else. in many countries chickens are serious pets. very intelligent, sociable. also descended from tyrannosaurus rex.

i'm sure elsie was surprised at your reaction. poor girl. 

[Dustysmom]

Oh sounds like my little Dusty! My nanna has a coop as well and he's usually well behaved when we visit the house but the moment you look away there he is terrorizing the chickens! We usually keep him in the front porch or in the house during visits, he gets so excited watching them from the sliding glass door, I'm sure if he had the chance he would also like to get his paws on a little chicken nugget. He seems fascinated in just the birds though, my nanna has a cat and 2 goats but he knows not to mess around with them ha ha

[Autumn & Lola]

Glad Goldie survived her trauma. I hope she is back to laying eggs when the shock wears off!

 

[hheldorfer]

Whew!  Poor Goldie!  I hope she's better today and will get through this.  Elsie needs to concentrate on the *unwanted* critters on the farm and leave the good critters alone!

[kjwarnold]

We always had chickens with names and some of them became very tame.  Glad Goldie made it.  And yeah, I know I could never leave Packy or Kirby alone with chickens.

[Corn Niblet]

I had been wondering if Cairns and chickens could co-exist.  I had been thinking about getting a few  chickens for  my urban backyard. Would I need to keep them enclosed?  I have a small pond with goldfish and koi fish and my 5 month old Rocky seems interested in them.

[Hillscreek]

Dempsey might be the only cairn in the planet - or beyond - who could be trusted with chickens. If it has feathers and/or fur, a cairn usually scents lunch. As for your fish ........some cairns hate the water, but many love it, so watch out.  I think it is our cairn friend Packy who actually goes fishing and catches them.

 

 

[Tuesday]

We have 50 chicks in a brooder in our garage.  Murphy is not happy he can't have the peeps.

[Lupinegirl]

I don't know what my cairn would do. He tried hunting toads and managed to bite one but it made him sick.  He didn't learn his lesson then but nowadays he ignores them.  He's tried biting turtles but they don't play fair. He likes chasing things that move, and he loves chewing squeaky toys, but he's a big scaredy cat when it comes down to being a guard dog. He wants to run inside and hide if he smells vultures sunning themselves up on the roof of our house.  He's watched bugs run across the floor. When he was a puppy, he ate spiders but he was scared by a housefly that smacked him in the eye when he was eating his kibble, so he does not like things buzzing him.  He wants to chase the deer that graze on our front lawn, but a couple of years ago, he saw twin fawns before I did and all he did was watch them.  He even sat down to watch them while they watched us and started approaching us.   He's fine with kids, cats, and other dogs. Once he smells them, he usually ignores them, but he is persistent in wanting to smell them regardless of how they feel about it.  Nikki tracks mice hiding in the house and he chases squirrels but he's never acted like he really wanted to hunt anything.  I don't know how he would respond to a small animal like a hamster or a chicken.  I think he may try to bite them, since he likes tasting everything.

[Kathryn]

You have vultures on your roof? Yikes....I am too much a city girl for that...but I know for sure that Oban would not be as nice as Demps is...(bunnies have left for bunny heaven from our city yard...and I once had to take a bird away from him...)

[Pepper Bug's Mom]

We had to get rid of the toads in our pond...Pepper would hunt them in the woods, bushes, etc.  She never learned not to bite them...foaming at the mouth, etc.  There was not one relaxing moment in our backyard with the toads.  The neighbor had a construction crew working on their house and one of the workers needed toads for his pond so off they went!!!