well that happened, time to start over

About two weeks ago we picked up a stray walking the side of the road in a storm after we almost hit it. Since it was only a minute or so down the road, we took it home and tied it up in our front yard so that if people were out looking for their dog they would see it. We also contacted the SPCA and posted a "found dog" ad on kijiji.


Well, she was in our front yard for 3 days. We put her in at night and even gave her a go in the house for a bit. On the 4th day it was the Great Glebe Garage Sale so we ventured into town. We dropped off the dog at a friend's place and finally was able to get in touch with the owner and we dropped it off later that evening.


She was a great dog in the car, well mannered, quiet. She was a husky.





Kinda looks like another husky I know who is very well mannered for a city dog.

file photo

Anyways, Tuesday was looking up all day. Had a good day at work, Alex got a lot done at the house in Nepean, we picked up 12 Muskovy ducks from a farmer. They are more quiet, can fly up to avoid predators, they have sweet red pimple faces and they apparently taste like roast beef.

On the way home we saw a wild turkey poult cross the road, so we snagged that one and two others. Turkeys for the holidays for shizzle and wild turkey genetics, hells yes!


Then we hit up the Dairy Barn for some chip wagon deliciousness and then home.


Home to chaos.


The dogs met us in the middle of the highway leading up to our house. The road cars travel 100 km/hr on. The dogs weren't wet so we can't imagine they were out for long.


Sitting on our porch is this husky. Ok.


We take the dogs into the barn and start to look around and figure out just how the dogs got out. That's when I notice chickens all over the yard dead. Not eaten, just dead.


The husky had blood on her face.


There were three areas of death and in all three areas, all birds were just snapped at once and killed except for one, the last one, which was eaten more. 


The ducks were all in a row. Every 3 meters or so, a perfectly good almost adult duck, no tears in it at all until the last one. They were running to the pond.


She broke into a pen by pushing her way in thus releasing our dogs.


Well, we had the owner come over to help clean up the mess. Twelve of our Chantecler chicks dead, the dog went inside their pen and snapped at them once and moved on. 7 mixed chickens that were almost full grown were gone. Then we remembered the ducks. Well, all four Rouen ducks gone along with our Chinese goose. That was almost all of the animals we raised from babies. 


Seriously. Like holy fuck.


Alex is just looking more pregnant than usual and this was now officially a bad day.


Obviously we find one not-quite-dead chick, great. My first I--need-to-end-it kill.


All in all, the owners of the dog understand to call us if she gets out again and they agreed to pay us $200. We are no longer free ranging our livestock if we are not physically home, even in broad daylight because you never know when a stray, or a comfortable dog comes along. I need a sharper knife, seriously. 


The ducks were big too. They were footballs with legs. I had to burn 20 animals; not-awesome. 


Here were the duckies before we even owned the house in Spencerville. What a waste.




Here were the duckies three days ago.





Here is my fire.

We had one of the geese get injured so he was inside, the last survivor (and the biggest). Here is Alex cleaning his wound, re-bandaging and even giving him a bath.

At least it was in the sink. Not like we put our farm animals in the tub with candle light...

Not the best day.

More research now. There's an auction next Saturday and we need to restock. Don'y feel like raising more babies again cause we already have 50 meat chickens showing up tomorrow. There simply won't be enough brooder space.

Today was a good day, great progress at the house. We're both exhausted. Bedtime.