Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

beanielou

What F-F says from me too

Eager_Elephant

Hi Moo

Hope today goes ok. (((Moo and family and chooks))))

Clearly some people do not understand the severity of the situation. Surely by having it tethered all day outside it's more of a working dog(?) than a pet. What breed is it?

Remember if you ever need a dog sitter I am available!!! (Quite a distance to travel though!)

EE

honeybear_2

I love mutant ninja puppy :A

Intergalactic_Floozie

Awww what a cute picture! Growing, except her paws still look too big for her body, I can just imagine her lollapping about the house

moo2moo

Morning all. I think the stroppy Northerner in me broke free briefly yesterday. Had had enough of being ignored by dog owner and passed from pillar to post by dog wardens... erm well its not a stray soo try bla bla bla who excused themselves because the dog is B&W not pink with yellow spots etc. etc. Managed to keep my cool but phoned the owners early evening and asked if the dog had been secured which needed someone to go and check and call me back. Clearly this was like waving a red rag to bull so when my call was returned I asked if I could go up there to see for myself which we duly did. Ended up being there over an hour. DD1 put them on the spot one too many times by asking how such a nice dog (which it was on a chain) could have been so nasty here and wanted to know if they had another dog somewhere. She then went to town with the gory descriptions of dead and named hens. Upshot is they've agreed to compensate at whatever the going rate is.

skipton

Don't forget to add loss of income from the sale of eggs.

How are the other hens doing? What a truely awful experience. My next doors dog came in and frightened my 3 girls by standing barking at the WIR. Fortuately I was late letting them out to free range. But I had enough feathers for a small feather duster as seemed went into a moult on the spot.

CaroleM_3

Moo - am so sorry to hear about your chickens! Must have been really upsetting for your dogs too, hearing another dog go rampaging in their territory.

It doesn't seem right that the authorities are passing you from pillar to post, have you tried calling back at a different time to see if you get a different person? My mum tried that with environmental health and it worked a treat, she ended up with a really helpful person who sorted the problem out.

moo2moo

So much for being in a positive frame of mind yesterday. By lunchtime I was ready to kill and I mean that literally. OH received a knock on the door from the dog owner to say it had escaped. Minutes later cars were roaring up and down the road as if they were in a drag race whilst the dog was spotted making a bee line for us. By the time it appeared at the boundary we had all the girls secured within their houses which is where they will be staying for the time being. Took them almost an hour to round it up simply by herding it in a circuit with a drivable perimeter of almost two miles which encompased a shot gun owning free range poultry farm. Needless to say I made that particular phone call a priority. Left the hairball no. 1 in the garden for the duration of the day as a deterent but stayed with her until they phoned to say it had been caught because I'd rather I was injured than she was. Had a rather loony phonecall with the owners mother-in-law who said it was all a bit embarrassing. See the neighbours seeing you butt naked at 5am is a bit embarrassing. Their inability to control their dog is downright negligent.

Can you tell I'm fuming?

Have purchased 50m of fencing which I will be using to extend the height of the fences to in excess of 6 feet on the basis that the hens can't fly up that high and hopefully the dog can't jump that high. Will be adding the cost of this to the invoice as an unnecessary out of pocket expense incurred because they cannot control their dog. I don't particularly want to see prison height fencing each time I look out my window but it seems needs must.

moo2moo

and so further complications have arisen. Whilst a ratio of 1 boy to every six girls was very harmonious the two remaining boys are not at all impressed that there are now only six girls between them. Will need to rehome or more likely dispatch one of them to prevent them fighting to the death. They've gone from being very placid to fighting each and every time they see each other. Have shut them into separate houses for the mo. with three girls each but now need to keep an eye on the girls to make sure that the randy little b*ggers don't overtread them. If theres any sign of that it'll be curtains for one of them. I know it sounds harsh but it the reality of keeping livestock. Sometimes its more humane to choose to kill rather than to wait for injury to lead to death. Its a bit of a grey area where the DDs are concerned though, I think they suspect it goes on but they seem happy enough that injured and poorly looking chickens die peacefully in their sleep surrounded by their friends and are taken to chicken heaven by the chicken fairy.

moo2moo

So on a slightly more cheerful note.... the sun is shining and its looking like being a glorious day. Will be spending the entire day in the garden... fencing... Puppy had her second vaccination on Monday so will be allowed into the garden with us today and can meet and greet people from the weekend. Have a feeling I'll need factor 25 sunscreen to prevent me turning into a lobster.