My friend, and past client, asked me to come to her house while she was out of town to take care of her animals, knowing that I'm an animal fanatic. She has three dogs, three cats, a slew of chickens, and some ducks. I agreed, looking forward to seeing what she had done with her place.
She left me detailed instructions for the care of each animal. She had also asked that I come over an hour before sundown to let the chickens out of their pen to "stretch their legs". That was funny to me, but hey, I'm an animal lover too, so I did as I was asked. She said that at sundown the chickens would head back into their pen on their own. So, after letting them out, I headed in the house to take care of the rest of her brood.
After about an hour, I headed back down the hill to the chicken pen. I'll be darned if almost all of them had done as she said, and gone back in the pen, and flown up onto their roost. I waited around while the remaining stragglers wandered back in. But, right before the last one got to the pen door, he flew up to the top of the pen fence.
I was worried, because there is netting across the top of the pen, and if he flew onto the netting, I didn't know how in the world I would rescue him, and avoid his spurs. I waited and waited, but he stayed put.
I called the friend, but got her voicemail. I called my Dad, who has always had chickens, to ask his advice. He said to get some pot lids and bang them together to scare him off. So, I went into the house, grabbed the lids, and went back to clang them. No luck. I called another friend who I knew had had chickens in the past. She said to get a stick and try to push him forward off the fence into the yard. I did, he didn't.
By this time, I'm desperate. I envision myself camping by the pen to rescue him if he decides to fly into the netting. I was determined not to lose any chickens on my watch!
Finally, I tried the friend's cell one last time, and she answered! I told her the whole saga - waiting for some sage advice to rescue me from this pickle. She said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you - he sleeps up there. He'll come down in the morning."
Seriously???
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