Good Doggie!

I walked out of the Kroger the other night and as I approached my car, I saw this:

I think dogs can be hilarious in so many ways. But this one was rather unique in that in waiting for his master....

he took a chill pill.

Yeah!
It would have been no surprise to me if Jazz music was playing from the radio and there was a thin line of cigarette smoke rising out of his nostrils.
Dogs are so great.

I Found Two Chickens, Part Two!

If you click HERE or just scroll down to the previous post, you will know what all this is about.

Last I left you, I had two beautiful hens that had spent the night and were starting a low burrrrrr noise (which I caught on both films below) when I was brushing my teeth. After I gave them a drink of water, I gently lifted them out of the box one by one and put them back in the carrier in which I'd brought them upstairs. One didn't want to go -- and tried to stick it's foot against the door, which I can only assume meant that I was a fabulous hostess.

I am kidding, you know.

Other than that millisecond of hesitation, they went into without incident. Here they are:

I covered the carrier with my leopard blanket and went down in the service elevator, again praying I wouldn't be discovered. But if I had been -- can you picture that encounter? Though this being Texas.... maybe it wouldn't surprise anyone. It was about 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning, so that helped. The elevator was deserted. And seeing that we're moving out in about 10 days, I had little to lose.

Once I secured the cage in the passenger seat, I drove carefully for 15 minutes or so to The Wildlife Center. On the way, I took the blanket off and put the window down so they could enjoy the fresh air and morning sun (for anyone who doesn't know, it's roosters that cock-a-doodle-do at the first hint of morning).

When I got there, I was instructed to put them in one of the outdoor pens, which was my hope. Then I went to get them a nice big pan of water and another filled with chicken scratch. What's great about volunteering at this place is that it allowed me to take care of them all the way through. It wasn't a day I was coming in, but instead of just dropping them off I could get them settled before I left.

But there was a little surprise.... there just so happened to be a handsome white rooster next to them, and it was a riot when I put the girls in the adjacent pen. He immediately zeroed in on them, and for the first few minutes, they were both standing side by side, giving him an audience. He proceeded to bu-kaw and strut, and scrape the gravel back with his feet like James Brown. He paced back and forth working his neck as I melted into a puddle. I mean really, I'm a city girl. No matter how long I've been around wildlife now, it's all new to me. I thought this shit only happened in cartoons/comedy skits or was exaggerated, but apparently, it's art mirroring life.



Mistah Fiiine Feathas... Now I see where Jagger gets it.




By the way, I have since caught myself (always when alone mind you) making that low burrrrr burrrr sound out loud, including variations, to amuse myself. I may have done it unconsciously though, god knows how many times. Perhaps I did it in my car, and someone may have seen me and wondered if I was singing to the radio or talking to someone on one of those blue tooth earplug things that I abhor (but never say never). Thank goodness for a place that forces you to have the AC on in the car so the windows were up. That's my guarantee that no one could have actually heard that I was, in fact... clucking.

Found: Two Chickens!

OK, so I was driving home from a bar, having had two shots of tequila and a beer and I found two chickens.

Sounds like the start of a joke, but it's true, and it gets better. At least I think it's funny. I was at the bar for farewell party for someone at the zoo, where I volunteer. I was heading back home before dinner and as I drove past the mansion-filled street en route, I saw two beautiful black and white hens pecking away at the grass.

I have never forgiven myself for not taking The Chicken at the Park and ensuring her safety (I finally went out with a carrier, cracked corn and a net and never found her... and I've never seen her again). As you can see by clicking HERE and HERE, after the construction on the site of her old home, where the little train shack had been in The Park, she took to living under a little bridge in the parking lot. While this provided plenty of coverage, insects to peck at in the plants and a water source, I saw her waaay too often in the middle of the road. YES, OR TRYING TO CROSS THE ROAD.

Either something really good happened to her, or something really bad. I was not going to risk it with these two. So I gave them some corn to eat while I rang a few bells in the neighborhood to ask after them. No one had ever seen them before or knew who they belonged to. That was all I needed to hear.




I had a carrier in the trunk and by now, a tattooed girl who was riding past parked her bike and helped me catch them. It was very easy, so I realized they were used to human beings. When we got home, we tossed a blanket over the carrier and snuck them up the elevator in our high rise. They don't allow wild animals so I was hoping no one would let a BUK-KAW rip at that very moment. The girls were good. Very very good.

I had no idea what to do to make them comfortable for the night but after a little thought it ended up that I put them in a big new deep Dell box with a floor of thick newspaper. I added a towel and a tee shirt to half. That whole thing went in my egg shaped bath tub in the guest bathroom where they would not be disturbed by sound or light for the night.

Before I tucked them in, I put cracked corn in the corner and they started pecking, so they couldn't be too upset. Then I held a tupperware container of water about beak level and they very delicately drank quite a bit. I was able to rest easy knowing they had their fill; if I'd left it in there for the night they'd have spilled it.






I put a light blanket over the top of the crate, as there were air holes on the sides. All was a quiet. Fast Foward to 7 AM the next day:


Good Morning Chickens! Time to sneak out and take you to The Wildlife Center.



Apparently they slept standing up? I gave them water and in the 20 minutes it took for me to get ready to go, one of them was starting a hysterical low buuuuuur noise. Cracked me up.

Tune in tomorrow for part two -- a happy ending.