chicken drama

last week—after a long, long day—at three in the morning, rupert began growling and shaking in my bed. in my daze i patted him and told him to go back to sleep. moments later, the puppy starts barking.

then i became vaguely aware of the horrified chicken screams outside.

and out i go! rupert and i to save the day!
except for one small chicken.

so we lost a chicken.
i am thinking to a raccoon. whatever it was was tree-able. the other chickens were scattered and hiding in their yard. i spent an hour rounding them up, finding a light, and generally battening down the hatches.

rupert was impressively helpful. he never harms the chickens, he helps round them up and was very very concerned about the backyard intruder. a good dog is a real treat some days.