Chicken in the hen house? Um...no!

Oh what a frightful day I had yesterday! First our old Lab Drake wandered off and it took a couple hours to find him. Well...technically we didn't find him, he just showed up. Don was down in the woods looking for Drake when I heard him at the garage door. Poor old Drake's been having a spell of senility so he'll be going out into the fenced in front yard from now on.

When I went out yesterday evening to do the chores I let several dogs out with me. This is routine for me and the dogs. Yesterday Maggie, Caoimhe, Seamus, Conan, Kyla and Katie went with me...the normal evening gang. As I stepped out of the garage and walked toward the chicken pen I realized the door was open and my Wyandotte chicken, Aunt Bertha, was OUTSIDE!!!

I ran to the chicken pen and tried to quickly guide her back in, but that wasn't going to happen. Chickens are not known for their high IQ. Aunt Bertha panicked and ran in the wrong direction, which caught the attention of two dogs...Maggie and Caoimhe. I'd been fortunate up to that moment that none of the six dogs had noticed the chicken was outside her pen. Now I was panicking too!

Screaming like a banshee I tried to keep Maggie and Caoimhe away while attempting to catch Aunt Bertha. It probably took just a few seconds to catch her, but it seemed like forever to me. Once I had her safely in the pen I have to admit...I shed a few tears and Aunt Bertha shed a few feathers.

I was quite upset with Don for not checking the latch when he was gathering eggs earlier in the day, but I am very grateful that the dogs were not interested in the chicken. I honestly don't think Maggie or Caoimhe had any interest in catching Aunt Bertha. No, they were just curious as to what was going on, otherwise they'd have definitely had her before I had a chance to get hold of the poor chicken.

A stressful day for sure, but you know what they say...all's well that ends well!

Drake, our "old man" dog...

Thought I would introduce Drake, our oldest dog, this evening. He's a registered Black Labrador Retriever...the only dog we have that has papers! He's a sweet, gentle dog who knows some neat tricks like speaking, begging on command and shaking hands. Drake is quite a gentleman!

We've known Drake since he was a puppy, but he hasn't always lived with us. He was my sister-in-law's dog for several years, but she had to bring him to us about six-seven years ago. Drake is now 12 years old and, as you can see in the photo, he's really showing his age.

Drake suffers from severe arthritis and takes a daily supplement for it. He's also given an anti-inflammatory when needed, which seems to be more often as the days go by. Drake is also becoming very absent minded and hard of hearing.

When Don fed the dogs last night Drake didn't get up to go eat. That worried us, because Drake LOVES to eat! The poor old fellow wasn't even reacting when Don called him, so we decided to feed him in the house (he usually eats in the garage). By mixing some canned food with his kibble Don was able to get him to eat a little bit of his food.

When we went to bed Drake didn't come upstairs with us. We were sitting in bed fretting over Drake's behavior when I realized that he'd slept all day long...he didn't go out for a potty break until Don got home from work. We were very afraid that last night might BE Drake's last night. Don even got up at some point in the wee hours to check on him.

As you can imagine, we were quite relieved to wake up this morning with Drake sleeping on the bedroom floor. He's been better today, not quite so confused and seems to have his appetite back...evidenced by his begging treats every time I've been in the kitchen!

Perhaps it was just the change of weather. We had storms move in during the night and Drake may have just been achy and tired last night due to the barometric changes. Whatever it was, I am grateful that he is feeling better because it would hurt my heart to much to lose Drake right now.

When the time comes, and I know it's coming, my wish is that Drake slip away peacefully in his sleep (right now he is sprawled out on the love seat snoozing with Conan).

I also hope that he sees one more Christmas...or more!