Thursday, April 7, 2011

cute widdle foxy woxy

Birds conserve their eggs in times of stress.   There will be no eggs today, I am afraid. The fox attacked my chickens again in broad daylight. I heard the rooster's distress call right outside the window where I am sitting – I was thinking, what's he doing outside of the coop, he's usually so conservative and stays in to guard the home. As I looked out at him the fox appeared, tiny little beast, dusty orange color, all fluffy; I can see why people think they are cute. The fox chased and wrestled my rooster right there in front of me, with only the window glass separating us. I pounded on the window and the fox scampered off for a moment. The rooster collapsed and I feared its neck was broken, and then saw that it was still breathing, and so I began to fear I would have to wring its neck myself to put it out of its misery. I called my Spouse in a panic, and then the rooster got up and began to stagger away and then the fox came after it again! I hung up the phone and dashed outside in my slippers, screaming at the fox which ran away again. I held out my arms to the rooster who actually ran into my arms like he saw me as safe base. My birds aren't tame, they're not pets, so this is very unusual. At the last moment he veered off into the garage and went to hide in a dark corner. I chased after the fox again for a second, then went and picked up the rooster, who was not at all bloody, thank goodness, but had lost a lot of feathers and was holding himself stiffly crooked. Maybe his voluminous feathers saved him. As I was carrying him back to the coop I saw the fox had gotten a hen, a small black one, and I screamed and chased yet again. He dropped her and both animals scooted off in different directions. I saw her later, strolling about as if nothing had happened. Almost all of the other birds are perched up as high as they can get inside their coop, away from danger.