CHICKENS ARE 'POULTRY IN MOTION'!!

We have one chicken I call 'One Eyed Chicken'. I think other chickens pecked her eye out in her previous living quarters. Probably when she was but a little chick. She is so cool. The first hen to really come around and show affection for human beings. When I visit the girls, I notice she likes to stand under my legs. She also stands next to me when I sit down in their house. I think she looks to me for protection as she is still picked on by the other birds. When I pet her, she doesn't crouch like her friends. She is the cutest one-eyed chicken I know. Ok, the only one-eyed chicken I know.

Unfortunately, we are down to seventeen birds as two have died since we acquired them. I am not positive why, but I believe at least one of the deaths was due to problems with egg laying. I have since gone to the feed store to inquire about food that will decrease production, but of course, no one is interested in that around here. I keep researching, though.

Aside from chickens, I am going to get a t-shirt that says "I went Trick-Or-Treating and all I got was this lousy kitten". How many people do you know who could take a six year old out for candy and return with an eight week old fuzz ball who was hanging out at an intersection on one of the coldest Iowa nights this year? I think this cat may be the reincarnation of Murphy. She definately acts as if she has been around for a long time. I don't think I've ever met a kitten this confident. She chases Luna and Olivia around the house and attacks their necks. I think the beagles like it, too. These dogs won't even look a cat in the eye. I think they believe they will turn to stone if the do. But, they seem to like playing with the kitten. And Olivia has even been known to chase the kitten in retaliation. She plays with her like she plays with her brother.

In other animal related news, I think we saw a mountain lion in our woods. For real. Soren and I were looking for Sandoz as we drove away from the house, and I spotted something on a log in the woods. For a split second I thought it was Ms. S, but I realized this animal was much bigger and tawny in color. Too big to be a house cat.....and the fur was not like a coyote or fox. It was big enough to be a deer, but it was NOT the face of a deer. We got out of the car and as I was telling Soren I thought it was a cougar, it got up to leave. Soren followed it into a field where it slowly traveled on. He said it was a feline....but I knew it was too big to be a tom cat...
He didn't think it had a tail, which would lead me to believe it was a bobcat, but the coloring wasn't right. Maybe a young mountain lion with an injured tail. But there are no mountain lions in Iowa, right?
Well, I just couldn't get it out of my mind, so I did some internet research. And there have been sightings since about 1997. They started in western Iowa, but as the cats can move sixty miles a night, I began to feel my suspicions may be correct. There is a bill in Congress that is trying to protect the rights of cats here in Iowa, but it was nixed last time around. Once again, farmers don't want them anywhere near 'their' land. There have even been lions hit by cars here in Iowa. They are back. I am supposed to report my sighting, but I feel that would only lead to the fall of this beautiful beast. Even if he does eat some cattle, it is no where as unnatural as how we humans have come to find our dinners on the table. My sympathy lies with the big cats. But I am happy we finally found Ms. Sandy-pants on our return home. She was on an adventure. By chance, we saw her cross the dark road a bit away from the house. Perhaps she thought she was a cougar, hunting in the prairie grass by night. I was just happy she was not cougar food!