An Egg-tastrophy

Picture for a moment if you will a chicken, a hen actually; the leader of the pack. It hears from outside the coop the familiar sound of the chicken gate opening, meaning fresh table scraps for all. Being the leader, she is the first out the door, scrambling as only a chicken can to the gate to meet humans bearing gifts of food. However, things are not as they seem. The gate is open, but no humans are around, only two dogs: one small, predominantly white dog who wants to eat a chicken and one large, predominantly black dog who wants to play with a chicken. "Play" is not the description the chicken would use, but nonetheless harmless play is in mind.

What does the chicken do? Run back to the coop, leading the dogs, particularly the "hungry" one, to her four trapped and helpless sisters, or does she charge the dogs, putting her own life at risk to save others? Well, this is an Allbritton chicken, so of course she charges the dogs... at least that's the story from the coop.

On Tuesday, while working from home, I was distracted by the commotion outside my office window. I ran to the back door and to my horror saw the chicken gate open and feathers everywhere. As I wheeled around the side of the house I saw Autumn (our big black Husky mix) carrying a chicken proudly in her mouth, with Gizmo (our little white Jack Russell) frantically jumping trying to get a taste. A few yells later, the dogs were in the house and the chicken was left laying on its side on the sled run.

I feared the worse - the price of Allbritton eggs had just gone up. But wait, there was a sign of life; one eyelid opened. After further examination, no bones appeared to be broken and there was no blood. Autumn really had just been playing a fun game of catch. The chicken, clearly exhausted, spent the day recovering and jumped out of the coop with her sisters the next morning. Tragedy, actually an egg-tastrophy was avoided.