Death in the early morning Finally my slackness has caught up with ... an innocent victim. I knew eventually something would take advantage of my loose security in the henhouse, and sure enough, the smallest of my hens, one of the original three, the Phoenix (on the viewer's left in this picture) got carried off early Sunday morning. I guess the cat (I am nearly certain it was a feral cat that roams our area and just left kittens next to the henhouse the previous week) finally figured out how to get all the way up to the high and narrow roost area. I feel terrible about it.

I've been stapling chicken wire over the door every night since then, and Bill is on the prowl with a slingshot to try to catch the cat. I need to get and put out a trap for it, I suppose.

This bird was a sweetie; she followed the rooster around closely and complained when the other birds wouldn't go to bed at the 'right time'. He tail was broad and held rigidly vertical, with a few degrees tilt occasionally - I called it her 'rudder'.

I wish she could have had a less horrible end. I only hope she was still half (or all) asleep when she died. One of the other hens must have been a witness (or near-victim herself), as she was making a horrible fuss for about 15 minutes afterward. Poor things.

  ¶ 5:20 AM