Life in the Country

As some of you are aware, Nate & I live in the country. We live in a very small town, population about 2,000. There is a large dairy farm on the road that we live on. They have about 100 milk cows, 20 beef cows, over 600 chicken, and probably 20 pigs. Normally, we see or hear the cows or chickens but for the most part, nothing exciting ever happens. We get cute/fun pictures like these:

On Wednesday, May 26, something exciting happened! From the story on the street, a random person came to the farm over a month ago and asked if they could drop off a rooster. The rooster had become too aggressive for their little pen of chickens. The farmers said that they did not need another rooster and said, 'no'. The next day, they woke up to a new rooster in the pen. Well, from what we heard later, that said rooster didn't like his new home. He didn't want to be in that pen anymore so the farm hands let the rooster go free. More background, to this story, the farm is about 500+ acres. 100 or so is directly across the street from our house.

I took the dogs out to play in the yard because we had obedience school that evening, and they needed to be a little tired prior to school. Scout had got his leash all nasty from being in the yard so I was cleaning off his leash. I saw Oakley sneak away but didn't think too much of it (at this time, I did not know the rooster was free). I then saw some commotion behind me and heard the worst squaking noise I have heard in a long, long time. Then, Oakley comes flying out of the bushes chasing the rooster. If you don't know much about chickens, they have two sets of feathers. One set is a loose set of feathers that they can lose easily. Then they have another set that keeps them warm. So, Oakley gets the rooster's bum and a whole load of featers go flying into the air. Nate was home, so I started screaming for Nate. I have Scout's leash, but I am worried about getting too close to Oakley b/c I don't want Scout to get into the fun too. My neighbor comes flying up into our yard. Nate comes flying out of the front door. Just as I was about to grab Oakley's leash, she had bit down on the rooster pretty hard. I somehow grabbed Oakley's leash and the rooster got away.

I gave Nate one of the dog's and we walked around the yard trying to find the rooster. The rooster ended up in another big bush in the side yard over the well. Nate told me to put Scout away. We would like to try and keep him from chasing chickens. So, we let Oakley hunt out the rooster. I think she was psyched. Oakley scared the rooster out and the rooster took off to the field across the street.

Sadly, we haven't heard from that rooster anymore. Hopefully, he has ran across the field and is hanging out in the woods safely by himself! Doubtful, but one can hope...