Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side of course! Rather, our side of the road. Yes, yesterday we came home from church to find a chicken in our backyard. This wouldn't have been so unusual several years back, because we used to have seven chickens that roamed our property. I never fed them, they just lived off the land and crowed ever so early in the morning. They were here when I moved in with my husband. I guess it was kind of a package deal. However, me not being a country bumpkin, I really didn't want anything to do with them, and was slightly annoyed with the constant crowing. Oddly enough, I must have grown more attached to them then I thought, because when the last one died over 4 years ago I kind of missed their familiar sound and the brightly colored feathers adorning our yard (of course the droppings I didn't miss).

So, it was kind of fun to find this brightly colored chicken pecking around our pine trees. My husband called my brother in-law, who lives across the road (actually he lives across the M-6 highway) to see if it was one of his. He counted the chickens in his yard, and said sure enough it was one of his chickens. He had to have flown across the highway!! We must have some pretty attractive piece of property. The hubs assured him, we would return it as soon as we caught it. I thought this would be a challenge, but the chicken made it a little easier than we thought.

When we went outside to track it down, our dog escaped immediately. We have a pointer dog, Rudy, but Rudy is scared of a mouse, so about the most damage he would do is point at the bird that we can already visually see for ourselves. Nevertheless, he scared the poor bird all in a tizy. The girls were having fun joining Rudy in the chase and laughing at the squawking bird, as it tried to take cover just about anywhere and simply ran in circles most of the time (I wonder why he didn't just fly back over the highway). Unfortunately this poor pee brained animal ran right up the stairs of our deck, where it was cornered. I kept shouting at Rudy to back off, but his prowling instincts were not going to let this chicken off the hook. He moved in ever so slowly until... BAMM! The chicken tried flying through the slats of the boards on the deck. Nevermind trying to fly OVER the deck, he tried flying through the deck. We about all fell to the ground in laughter. Rudy looked puzzled, as if to say "well that wasn't much of a chase." My hubby just shook his head, and then went to the rescue of the chicken. Once in the arms of my husband, he was calm and collected. The girls got to pet the chicken and then it was back down the road for him. I tell you, it's never a dull moment around here. I only wish I had a picture of the chicken stuck in the slats of the deck. It was truly a sight to see.