Perpetual Ruminations

A Late Fall Hurricane.

This is my Wednesday night entry, but again, after midnight. That means it is officially Thursday and Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We aren't doing anything too much for the day, but since my mother-in-law is getting up there in years and would be spending her first Thanksgiving home alone, we're heading over to her house right away in the morning. Well cook dinner over there, spend a nice day, and then the plan is to come back home. She tends to do her best to get us to spend the night, so that may also be a possibility. Even so, I will be coming home tomorrow to take care of the pets.

We have three now, Hannah our dog, Pizza, the oldest girl's hamster, and Hurricane, the younger daughter's chicken. Yes, you read that correctly, a chicken. Hannah was already adopted when we started fostering the girls, adopted herself from the pound, pending euthanization. After the girls moved in with us, they each wanted a pet but being in an apartment we were limited on what to get for them. Also, Hannah tends to be very tough on other animals; she never learned to get along with any growing up in the pound. For some reason, she doesn't always get along with other dogs, even though she grew up with other dogs in the pound.

The older girl got a hamster about the size of a small guinea pig and it's still doing great. The younger girl got an older hamster from a friend and it passed shortly after we took it in. We purchased another, a dwarf hamster, but it also passed within a few months. Next, we tried a gerbil that did a little better, but not much. She loves animals but can be a little rough on them, but we have no way of knowing why they didn't live longer.

Late this fall, I was surprised one evening to see a chicken in the driveway. There isn't anyone close with chickens, but some distance away I hear a rooster once in a while. I figured it got out and would soon head back home for the night. The next few days were cold, snowing and we didn't go out all weekend. Monday, however, it was nice again, the snow was melting, and I wanted to get the recyclables hauled. I was surprised to see the chicken come out from under the pickup.

I felt bad for it, living for three days under the pickup without much for it to eat except snow. I grabbed a handful of birdseed and tossed it out, the chicken came right out to me, hungry and pecking up seeds. So, instead of taking the truck to haul recyclables, we took the car and drove around the area to see if anyone had chickens, but we didn't find her home. Next, we drove to the local farm and fleet store and purchased a huge dog kennel, and fixed it up a bit for a chicken.

by the time we were ready for her, she had retired under the vehicle and was roosting on the axle. It took a little coaxing to get her to come out, and it took a few minutes more to get her to trust me to pick her up, but soon enough we had her in the cage. I wasn't sure how well she would like to be caged up, but she made herself right at home. In fact, it almost seemed like she was accustomed to being in a cage and felt safe and secure again. She became another pet, supposedly the younger girls, but we all take care of her.