Happy Birthday Lorna

You can see her as a baby on her blog. I was sorry not to be there, one of the downsides of being a bit far from home (and of the menagerie).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY. Lots of love and kisses from your loving daughter!!

But what about the chickens?

As far as we could tell they spent a fairly uneventful day in the coop eating the food we left out for them.
The coop arrived without its perches. They turned up today and we are hoping that they will make it more attractive for the chickens to roost in. Perhaps they will manage to put themselves to bed tonight.

... wait there is late breaking news coming in... all five chickens have made it in to the coop unaided and the door has shut!! Now we just need to worry that nothing fastens the door closed, it just relies on Mr Fox being a bit dim to keep him out. Tant pis as they say in French.

Poppy is here!

She came from just north of Toulouse which is just over two hours drive away. We managed to arrive an hour and a half later than we said we would after herding chickens, turning back because we had forgotten to take a phone (we needed to call the sellers when we were near so they could come and get us as directions to their farm were complex) and then driving about 40km extra because of a diversion. We felt a bit hectic by the time we got there. There were quite a few other dogs there so she should be well socialised with other dogs from a young age.

The journey home got off to a bit of a ropey start when she howled like a puppy of the baskervilles really full on howling at the moon stuff for about 15 mins (tricky driving under those conditions) then suddenly stopped howling and went a bit limp then vomited on Doug's leg (with some warning so he managed to get a towel in there to catch the worst of it). It looked like she had been eating twigs and turnips. Then she conked out and we were a bit worried she was dying as she seemed to be panting so fast.

After a brief attempt to escape from Doug's arms and a brief spell of howling things looked up a bit as she settled in to a proper sleep. We took her for a little walk at a service station (complicated by the fact she had never worn a collar or been on a lead before - I think some of the passers by thought we were puppy torturers). She only had a drip to drink and wouldn't have a pee, but we tired her out some.

Energetic walking style

She slept for the rest of the journey and woke up again just as we got home. Then she ran around on the lead a bit, chewed some stuff and had a crap on the floor.

Couldn't stay still for the photo

Then she fell asleep again after all that activity

Brief rest from the activity

Awwwww look how cute she is.

Chicken saga episode 5

5 chickens have been seen this morning but only 3 of them in the chicken 'enclosure'. The big chicken spent the night behind the partially collapsed wood pile at the end of the house, don't know where the other one slept.
We are about to head off to get Poppy so we are hoping that the food we have put in the run will lure the 2 awol ones back in. However the 3 chickens in the run seem too stupid to be able to eat from their new chicken feeder (they had a plant tray before but they crapped all over the food and it was very smelly so I removed it).
Tune in for the next exciting episode this evening...

We need chicken cam

Two of them decided to go for a walk as dark fell and it seems that chickens fall asleep instantly it is dark enough. One made it in to the coop, two went to sleep on the top so we picked them up and wedged them in (having shone a torch on the door to get it to open), and the other two are presumably asleep in the bushes somewhere but we can't find them.
Will they make it through the night or not???? Watch this spot...

Come in number 5

In an exciting and unexpected development chicken number 5 returned in time for bed. Now as we speak all 5 are playing a game of chicken (!) with the electric door. It will close at some point when it decides the light level is low enough. The chickens aren't showing much sign of going to bed at the moment. Doug said I had to come in and leave them alone. Apparently 'if not duffers' won't be left out all night with the fox...

Update on other animals

The cats spent the night quietly and Psycho (or Sambuca) seems to have been calmed down by a good seeing too, although she is still a bit nervy and prone to suddenly attacking things (like ones leg, the chair, a ghost). We let them explore the rest of the upstairs for a while as a change from the room they are staying in, and she did a very impressive climbing act and managed to get along the inside of the roof between the two rooms, she should be a good tree climber when allowed outside.

The pigs during the other animal dramas have been carrying on as normal. Perhaps they feel a bit neglected though as they haven't had so many scratching sessions. At the moment their enclosure is quite close to the house and as they set up a groinking chorus every time they hear our voices they are being quite vocal.

They are enjoying the rain and not huddling in their house but instead swimming around in the mud.