Chickens are delicate creatures, sometimes dying for no good reason.  Unfortunately, they are also delectable creatures, and find themselves in harm’s way.

Our chickens have been cooped up in their, er, coop for several days now.  We’d lost 1-2 chickens a day last week.  Several of the abductions seem to happen during the middle of day, unusual for us.  Raccoons and possums (technically, Opossums, but that’s beside the point) are nocturnal, and do their worst work if we haven’t locked up the coop by 10 PM.

So that probably leaves a dog.  Not ours — they’re cooped up in the house while we’re gone.  A month ago, though, we had a couple of dogs in the yard; maybe they’ve returned.  We haven’t seen the afternoon striker yet, though, so it is hard to tell.

I’ve put up live no-kill traps, and after 2 apparent escapes and one time catching our out cat, I got a racoon last night.  Adorable little guy.  We’ll give him to someone in the country who doesn’t much like his neighbor, so it should have a happy life elsewhere.

We saw a possum two nights ago, but the dog let it run off somewhere… perhaps we’ll get it next time.  And no ETA on the dog thing, either.  But at least one perp is out!  Thanks, wikipedia, for the image!