Birdbrain

Today started out oddly ... and ended oddly.

Today was my first 8-hour weekend shift at the new part-time job, so I got about 7:30 and got some breakfast and puttered around a bit. Then as I was getting ready for a shower, I looked out the bedroom window and saw something moving by the fence. I figured it was just the neighbor's little dog, but I put on my glasses for a better look and saw ... a chicken! It walked along the fence in the neighbor's yard, then around behind my back fence. I had to get a better look to make sure I saw what I thought I saw, so threw on some sweats and went in the backyard. And sure enough, it was a chicken. When it saw me, it went into the trees, but I hear it clucking softly. I told it if it's going to hide from something scary, it should maybe also be quiet, but it didn't heed my warning.

I went to work, which was very quiet and very boring, and when I got home, put all my things away. It was a bit stuffy, so I opened the windows in the dining area and, lo and behold, there was the chicken, in the neighbor's yard again. I just kind of shook my head. He wasn't home, so I couldn't ask him about it. It disappeared pretty quick. For a while.

I was eating dinner (not chicken) and catching up on some stuff on the computer, when I heard some loud clucking and squawking. Looking out the window, I saw the chicken had somehow managed to get on top of a plank of wood my neighbor had leaning up against the fence of his neighbor's dog pen. The three dogs were trotting around anxiously, occasionally stopping and giving the chicken a quizzical look or barking. It looked for awhile like the chicken was just going to hop down into the dog pen, then she'd look like she would hop down to safety. It went back and forth like that for a few minutes, then finally she tried to hop into the tree right in front of her, only the branches weren't big enough to hold her. I saw the chicken hit the ground running, then there were a couple squawks, a couple growling barks, and then silence.

I figure there probably wasn't much chance of a good ending to that. If I'd gone out there to do something, the same thing would have happened -- she would have gone for the cover of the tree. I had left the back gate open after I saw it this evening. Chickens eat grasshoppers after all, and there's still plenty of them around. I'm not sure what I'd do with a chicken though. They probably can't be housetrained, and I'm not sure it's legal to keep them in the city limits anyway.

I'm not sure if the dogs' owners are home. Guess they're in for a surprise.