"CHOOKS ON THE LOOSE"

Hon, will you let the girls out? Those were the first words of the morning to my husband, it was around 7:00 AM and he was off to purchase his morning newspaper. My feet touched the floor about 7:45AM came downstairs had my orange juice and looked out the window expecting to see the girl's- no girls. I thought it strange, but it had rained the previous day and night, I figured they were not wanting to get their feet wet. 8:30 AM still no appearance from the girl's, I say to my husband, somethings not right. Out the door I go, as I get closer to the coop I realize the pen door is open. Okay, maybe they are still on their roost, please still be on the roost. No such luck. Honey, the girl's are gone, gone as in flown the coop. The first thought that entered my mind was, okay Winslow has been in the yard since coming home with DH, we heard no barking. Winslow barks at everything. Good sign. No feathers in his mouth, no feathers in the yard. Another good sign. Then I thought about the very large fox that trotted up our driveway the day before. Bad sign. Could one or some of my girl's been this morning's breakfast. I scan the yard, look up in the tree's, and then call out "Gladys", "girls", "Gladys". To my amazement here they come. One by one they trot out from the woods behind their coop. Oh happy day, all ten with feathers intact. In the pen they go, pen door closes, I double check feathers and toes, we both breathe a sign of relief. That was enough stress for one day. And I thought we were empty nesters!