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So we were having a lovely sunny spring day - went to the local organic farm and weeded carrots (just kept telling myself how lovely the carrots are when we harvest them because that is one tedious, monotonous, fine-motor skilled job!). But enjoyed being on the farm, even if weeding carrots isn't high on my list of awesome things to do. :P Read the newspaper on the sunny front deck, was enjoying the day... Came home and worked in the covered garden, putting in a new board for the edge of the raised bed and putting cedar strips on top of the poly outside to keep it from blowing all over. Also planted peas and radish seeds. All good. :)

Was inside making dinner with the kids shortly after 6 when there was a commotion outside at the chicken pen. A *massive* St. Bernard was loose and running around the pen trying to get in at the 38 chickens!! I ran outside and left the kids (& our dog) inside. The dog's owner was trying to catch the dog, but alas, the dog was so big and not well behaved at all (and apparently fixated on eating my chickens!). And on top of that the owner was fairly clearly inebriated, which did not help. There was pure chaos for about ten minutes while his dog tore holes into the wire fence of the outside pen where 14 laying hens were, and the dog proceeded to attack a white leghorn and then a sussex, much to my horror. I opened the gate into the coop so they could escape to the safety of the covered pens and coop, but in the chaos I did not notice that the attacked white leghorn disappeared (I have no idea where). Three hens went out the gate and took off across the yard, so my son came out to help me get them back into the coop before the dog got loose again and ran after them, too. Meanwhile the dog owner is very apologetic, yelling out his email and saying he'll pay for any damages. I was not in a position to write down his email, so asked for a phone number instead.

We did get the three loose hens back into the pen and tonight everyone (minus the one leghorn) is safe and locked inside. The outside pen with numerous holes in the wire will need serious repair before we can use it again. We looked for about an hour around the property for the missing leghorn but saw no sign of her anywhere. No peeps, no trail of feathers, nothing.

My daughter was inside, watching from windows as things transpired. She was crying hysterically, and is clearly upset by what happened. Thankfully my son had the sense to turn off the oven where we were making dinner, to come out and help get those three loose hens back in. He also observed the owner's behaviour and agrees he was drunk. He doesn't seem as bothered as his sister was, but I think we're all reeling.

I know I am still in shock (which is why I'm writing this - need to unload it all). I can't believe that the dog was so poorly behaved (did not respond to his name and was not easy to handle at all - was literally *dragging* his owner behind him afterwards), not to mention the level of intoxication of the owner. I'm left shaking my head, trying to make sense of it all. I'm glad I was home when it happened; I can't imagine what the outcome would've been if I hadn't been here. And I'm glad 37 birds are safe tonight.

Oh, and on another note, my daughter and I found three piles of bear poop about 150m down the road tonight, so looks like hibernation's over.