Today started out rough when Mom rolled over at 730 am and none of our school day alarms had gone off. I did manage to get the kids dropped off at school at exactly 755 am and they were all permitted to stay, but then an hour or so later I received a phone call letting me know our bus no longer has an Aide and the girls need to be picked up this afternoon. Plus they will have to be car riders indefinitely. This only takes about 1 1/2 hours out of each day for me, but hey...no big deal right...it's not like I do anything while the kids are away....yeah right!So anyways I headed down to my sister's house in Bedford and worked for about 1 1/2 hours trying to get things sorted out and cleaned up for her so the house can be put on the market to be rented out or sold or whatever she decides. Then I dropped back by our house for a couple of minutes and headed right back out to the DMV. ((Josh and I took the plunge and bought a car to replace the Malibu that needs transmission repairs, but we bought it on Sunday and still needed to get tags, etc.)) Once I got to the DMV the lady behind the counter noticed that my husband only signed the front and not the back of the title and I was a little too forthcoming about where he was when she asked me if he was with me....Sooooo I had to get with the hubby and then go back with the title signed in all the right places. Since he was over an hour away I wasn't able to get back to the DMV until about 130 pm. Pictured below is Josh's new ride! (and I got my van back!!!)
in the meantime, Mom and I did get in a little retail therapy to try to even out our day before I went back to the DMV and she left ot get the kids from school. I found a couple of nice tops and a really pretty dress for the girls at Goodwill and Mom bought a new cherry tree at Tractor Supply. Plus we made a quick run through the Dollar Tree. Luckily things didn't take too long at the DMV and I was already to the gas station at 205 pm when Mom called to say she had seen a dog running down our driveway and to get home to check the "babies" before the kids got brought home from school.
What I drove into was like something out of a nightmare. My beautiful "Pretty Boy" was almost to the road with three puncture wounds in his back. There was a dead black female duck, 3 of our barred rock baby hens were ripped to shreds, 1-2 additional hens are gone and one of our roosters "Big Boy" is now missing all of his tail feathers, plus we are missing a silver duck altogether and the whole property is littered with feathers. Since neither of us were home for the attack we can only speculate as to what really happened here, but with the feathers everywhere and from the looks of things the rooster and drake were trying to protect the hens and female ducks from the dog, luckily we haven't lost either of them yet, but the drake is going to be touch and go for awhile I'm sure. We are doing some research and may try putting some epsom salt and water in the tub for him tomorrow to try to clean the wounds out as good as possible by letting him take his own bath in the bathtub. For tonight we are using an antiseptic spray and he has been moved into a tub in the dining room with straw bedding and a towel for a blanket so that he will stay a little warmer.
Our poor "Big Boy" is so ashamed of his missing tail he was hiding his bottom in the corner of the hen house tonight at bedtime. The dog Mom had seen running away from the house was brazen enough to come back while Animal control was here filing their report and they were able to catch it. The dog will be monitored for 5 days to see if it passes feathers or any chicken pieces and if so we will know it was the culprit, if it doesn't then we may have a bigger problem like a coyote. I kinda hope it wasn't that dog, because it was a beautiful dog and it looked like a well cared for pet....but I would like the security of knowing the immediate threat has been removed...soooo IDK... I do know that tomorrow is going to involve clipping chicken and duck wings so that we can keep them in the fence and a little more protected. (All of the birds injured or killed today were outside the fence, we are thinking the rooster was trying to protect the hens when he was mauled.) Plus I still need to open my Cub Scout book and see what we are supposed to be doing tomorrow night, plant a cherry tree, and decorate a cake. I just pray that tomorrow is no where near as crazy and shocking of a day as today was.
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