The Tailess Wondersaur

Last night was a late night.


We had some errands to do and then get baby girl in bed.   By the time we were done it was 11:30 when I went to go close up the chickens and ducks.


There was one pullet still out.  It was one of the new girls.
Since they haven't quite learned that I'm not the "official," boss of them, (the rooster is) they are usually pretty tame and easy to get in the coop.

Shine a light on them- they stay still- and you grab them and place them back in the coop.


Well.  Not tonight.


As I reach for the bird, she dives off the coop and into the yard, face first into a little hole in the ground.

A slight chuckle at the sight of a chicken taking a nose dive into the ground as I walk over to her.

She is still
Face in the ground.

I'm trying to be light on my feet.

Shine her with the flashlight, right in the eyeballs.
She won't see me coming.

I grab her.

She.....


flies.


Clear across the yard.

I'm....


stunned...


I have never seen a chicken fly that sort of distant, while screeching,  and then as if she never existed.....disappear into the moonlit night sky.


She was gone.

Was there ever really a chicken there?

Was I dreaming?

I look down at the hole she had just flown out of.

No sign of her there.

Not even a cloud of dust.

I shine the flashlight alll over the yard.

No.
chicken.

I look down again, and whats in my hand?

Something soft.
Warm.
Fluffly.
Something that smells a bit like....
pee.

Its feathers.

But no chicken.

I realize....

I'm holding her tail.

But not the chicken.


So as I look at the clump of tail in my hand, a thought occurs to me.

Chickens really are dinosaurs.
Not only do they screech, have the ability to fly across the yard at night, are mindless meat machines, but they also have the ability to lose their tails like their great lizard cousins?!


I swallow hard.

I look back at the coop.

I hear quiet clucking.
Plotting?

I am caring for a sum total of 45 shin high dinosaurs.

Its a full on Jurassic Park in my back yard.