<p style="text-align:center;"><em>A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara</em></p>
Last Thursday in the middle of the day I made a grisly discovery—a half-eaten chicken in the chicken yard.

I quickly scanned the flock to see who was missing.  All the named chickens were accounted for so I breathed a sigh of relief.  It was sad nonetheless and a mystery.

What was bold enough to attack in broad day light?  And would it return?????

I left town Friday morning for a weekend retreat and Rachel came home Friday afternoon for Spring Break.  I talked to her Saturday and she told me that Crooked Neck had died.  This was sad news indeed.

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/crooked-neck.png"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4371" alt="crooked neck" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/crooked-neck.png" width="150" height="129" /></a>Crooked Neck was from one of the first set of eggs we hatched.  We didn’t expect her to live very long since her neck was so misshapen but she survived several years.

Monday morning when I went to let the chickens out, I discovered that Elliot had died during the night.  There was no evidence of foul play so I’m not sure what happened.  It was almost more than I could bear.

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/elliot.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4372" alt="elliot" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/elliot.jpg?w=150" width="150" height="112" /></a>Beekeeper Brian and Matt are in Colorado and when I told Brian about Elliot, he said “Well don’t throw him away.  I want to use his feathers for tying flies.”

I must admit, Elliot did have wonderful feathers.

I took Catherine (our eldest) shopping while she was home to get a dress for her Junior Recital.  She is an oboe performance major at Hardin Simmons University.  At one store, they frequently feature books and accompanying stuffed animals.  The proceeds from their sale go to support kids’ health and education initiatives.

This time the books were Dr. Seuss books including one of my favorites <em>Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb</em> -- a very repetitive, rhythmic book that I use in my music class.  It came with a stuffed monkey so, of course, I had to buy both.

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/monkey.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4373" alt="monkey" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/monkey.png?w=300" width="300" height="289" /></a>I read the book to Catherine which she found extremely silly.  Then I decided to name the monkey Elliot - in memory of our dear departed rooster.  It has made our loss much more bearable.

This morning, all the chickens were alive and pecking.  Maybe the roughness has ended.