<em>Bella was staring intently into the small chicken yard this afternoon. I figured she was just willing one of the smaller chickens to come out and “play.”</em>
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<em>When I went out to check eggs, I saw what had her mesmerized.</em>

<em>A quail was eating from the chicken feeder. I thought to myself “That looks like one of our quail. What's he doing in the chickenyard?”</em>

<em>So I turned to look at the long quail cage and discovered I had left the door open when I fed the quail earlier.</em>

<em>Now if I were in charge, I would fire me. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I could find a replacement. </em>

<em>After a quick inventory of the quail still in the cage, I realized the one eating from the feeder was not the only escapee. There were five or six others missing.</em>

<em>I debated briefly about simply closing the cage and letting those outside retain their freedom. </em>

<em>Then I recalled we'd paid money for these quail so I probably should attempt to recapture our investment.</em>

<em>I set the egg basket down and began creeping up on the quail roaming the chickenyard. They weren’t that hard to catch as they did not have much flying experience.</em>

<em>I did learn that I can only hold one at a time as they are wriggly little critters.</em>

<em>I managed to catch all I could find on our side of the fence. One had escaped into the neighbor’s yard, but I chose not to go retrieve it.</em>

<em>Remember, the neighbors already think we are strange after seeing me in my bee bonnet. In their backyard, in my bee bonnet, rounding up quail might prove grounds for a call for the patty wagon!</em>

<em>I suppose “quail wrangler” can now be added to my “chicken wrangler” title making me Sara Chicken/Quail Wrangler Extraordinaire.</em>

I wonder. CW Sara may have chased down some quail, but is that the same as daily wrangling chickens? Enough to earn her a new title?

What do  you think?