Today’s run 7:27 miles

After all that effort to protect my hens, I lost another one last night~  Sarge.

Sarge’s real name is Yes, Drill Sargent but we all called her Sarge for short.  She was bossy and everyone stayed pretty much out of her way.

Sarge was a pushover when she was not being bossy.  She would escape from the pen during the day and come up to the door and sit there waiting for me to carry her back down to the chicken tractor and pen.  What a baby!  I liked Sarge.  I will miss her bossing all the other hens around.  They literally quaked when she came around.  It will be quiet without her.

I am majorly P.O.’d now.  I am pulling rank.  I called the Department of Wildlife today.  After getting the official Government runaround, I actually got a nice guy on the other end of the phone.  He is coming out this afternoon with a fancier (read:  bigger and better) trap.  This trap has a one way door and is capable of capturing more than one animal at a time.

The DOW guy thinks I am dealing with a Raccoon~I have thought that all along.  When you get up in the morning and find the leftover parts of your favorite hen in the water supply, you know that a Raccoon has been there and washed its breakfast or evening snack.

So, the DOW guy will be here in about an hour and I am eager to see this “bigger and better” trap and am hoping and praying I have enough hens left for it to do its job~that is to capture the culprit responsible for me losing my lovely ladies.

It is now Wednesday.  Saturday evening when I went to bed, I had nine chickens.  Today I have six.  That is not good.  All I can think of is that Agatha Christie novel, “And Then There Were None”.  I do not want that to happen.  I know that there are plenty of other hens in this world but I have grown attached to the ones I have.  I do not want any more to suffer the same fate as the three this animal has already had.

Keep your fingers cross tonight!