LIFE IMITATES ART IMITATES THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL

in retrospect, it seems callous to have ever imagined anything but the best of futures for the backyard chickens. two of the original brood were lost in a bloody midnight raid in november, and their eventual replacements have been tormented alongside their adopted sisters by the backyard rat ever since. the egg and chickenfeed bounty has now encouraged another rat to join the game, and the two of them won't be foiled by any efforts to close the tunnels they've dug under the walls of the chicken run. they dig around every concrete slab, and only one of the hens (the most timid otherwise) isn't scared of them. it's not clear whether or not the rats live underground, but they spend their afternoons popping out from a hole in the middle of the yard and running to wherever it is they've dug an access route to the run and taking whatever they can find. whether it was the clumsy chickens or the rats that did it themselves, the feed dispenser had been spilled on sunday and the rats had a veritable feast. unfortunately for spectators, the only chicken with any fight didn't seem to have it in her to stay vigilant at the spot where the rat tunnel opened on to her turf.

that, however, was understandable since another sister of hers had been taken last monday, and not dragged away like the one hen that went completely missing on that night in november, but stopped dead in her tracks by fear. a neighbor's off leash pitbull had torn down the sides of the run for the second time in two weeks just a few days earlier, and the added shock must have been too much when a racoon started hissing and rattling the roof of the run so soon after. we found the body when we went to collect the ladies into the carrier for a night inside after realizing that no amount of shooing was going to keep the raccoon away once we went to sleep.

she went in the freezer with the pants, shrouded in a vinyl bag from powell's. it would be a shame and an insult not to eat her after such demonstrated courage, so she spent yesterday, the day of the rat feast, on the dining room table -- but not to be eaten just yet. she's now lying in state in the refrigerator, where she was moved from the table just before midnight. the friend of ours who knows how to pluck and gut fowl can't come over until wednesday, and he says that she'll need to defrost.