After watching the deer, she did something she’s never done before- she opened the front door by herself and just took off towards the deer. Barefoot, in the wet grass, in her underwear. They of course ran and were out of sight within 30 seconds but she kept going. And going. It was the evening and wasn’t even that warm. I usually have to beg her to go outside. I didn’t get it all on video but you can kind of tell in the last video how far she ran and how surprised I was (even though I was trying to make sure I didn’t sound like I was discouraging her boldness). Looking back at the video I wish I didn’t discourage her from going farther.
For the record I think people who always point out the silver lining in shitty situations, instead of just saying it’s a shitty situation, are annoying. So I apologize to myself for annoying myself. But, it is awesome that every morning I can sit and do my work 3 feet away from this amazing little kid while she has school. (Yes, she wears the same 3-4 outfits every day. So do I.)
Here are some dramatized details that nobody cares about:
As background, unbeknownst to us the owner of this house lives about a mile away with her 7-year old daughter, and they planned to come over every day to feed the chickens. Since they were late-adopters of social distancing (to say the least), and it’s awkward to try to convince someone else’s 7 year old to keep her distance, I volunteered to feed these chickens as a prophylactic measure.
The door to the coop is designed to latch shut when I go in (to keep chickens from escaping), but the alignment is off so it doesn’t latch. So a rogue chicken was always on my mind – and I knew from watching Rocky that if one escaped I was unlikely to catch it in an open space (especially with shrubs for it to hide under and around). But I guess I got complacent. Also, on this day the direction of the wind was slowly blowing the door open.
What I didn’t know – but was for sure on my mind the whole time – is what will the owner do if one gets out. Will she be really mad at me? Are they expensive? Will we ever get the chicken back? Will a coyote eat it? Will she shoot it and cook it?I wasn’t recording when he walked out. But he basically just strolled out and I didn’t lunge at him because I thought a more calm approach was more likely to get me close enough to grab him. I was wrong. Then thought it would be easy to entice him back in with food – but I quickly realized that was not working either. After about 30 minutes of the failed attempts, it became clear I needed help. So I asked Debbie to come outside and manage the door (keep it closed to keep the other chickens from getting out and open the door if/when he came back in).Debbie was happy to help. But don’t be fooled; her primary goal was to convince me to lunge at the rooster and fall in the mud, so she could capture it on video. And her encouraging words in the videos were for that purpose.
(Yes I realize my hair sort of makes me look like a chicken and yes I may be losing my mind, in general)The purpose of the shovel and lid were to corral the rooster – not catch it. Didn’t work. But the corralling part gave me an idea.After about an hour of chasing the m rooster, including some time the rooster spent in the backyard, while Gigi was in the house alone, Debbie and I started to argue with each other about the best approach. I was starting to think we weren’t getting it back but I did not want to call the owner of the house. Then I remembered seeing some green fencing in the garage. And decided to try to use it as a corral. I unfortunately didn’t get that part on video but it worked. We made a perimeter with the fencing and slowly condensed the space towards the door to the coop, and he went in. Below is the fencing we used. Later that day, when the owner came over, I told her what happened. Before I finished my sensationalized version of the story she shrugged and said “You can’t get them back. You have to leave the door open all night and they will all leave the coop and tear up the yard. But then at night they will come home and you can shut the door to the coop.” Then she changed the subject. She didn’t seem to care that one escaped and was not interested in my story. I guess that’s how farmers are – they don’t worry about much and don’t mince words.
Gigi Makes Three 