A Thief in the NIght ...and Day

Last night while I was taking Nathan to his mom in Lawrence, Keith got home and closed the popholes for me.  It was after dark, and he assumed everyone had gone in.  

Wrong. 

And from the outside....

As near as I can figure, it was one of the older red hens.  I thought it was Mary, the white hen left in the old henhouse... but she is safe today, and the feathers had red on the ends. 

An older red hen greeted me at the gate when I went in to open the pophole this morning, so it only took one. 

You can see the paw prints in the dirt where it dug.  We had buried the wire six inches deeply, but that was ten years ago, though you notice we had strengthened that part of the fence earlier. 

When I left to go to the doctor this afternoon, I left the Intrepid Lil out to watch the place.  When I say watch... she is laying there calmly while a squirrel is eating in her bird feeder.  You can just barely see him next to the pole, the darker brown. 

I got back, and proceeded to do chores in both henhouses.  I had put a cement block in the hole dug last night, and we still have to hang the new gate.  About 4 PM, Lilly wandered over by the fence, looking down into the pasture to the brush pile and wild area.  I noticed she was getting agitated, and I kept an eye on Abby, who was with me.  

It was a lucky thing I did, because all of the sudden, Lil began barking and jumping up and down at the fence, and, turning at the deck where I had just walked, I saw a coyote who had come clear up to the fence and now was frightened by Lil's bark and was on it's way back down pasture.  It was the same we had seen before... big, with a darker ruff.  I yelled and it sped up and ran through the hole in the fence at the bottom of the pasture that I've shown you. 

Lil was ready to follow it, but I fear her going through the fence. 

I took her in the henyard, where she coursed around...

and got her nose full of coyote scent....

And now she's out on the deck, where she can keep an eye on the pasture...

I have to be gone about 4 hours tomorrow afternoon... and I'm leaving her out in the yard to keep an eye on things.  

I trust her. 

On a sad note, this is my little sister's Kathleen's 61st birthday... or would have been. 

Here she is in her disco days; she really loved to dance and loved disco music.  I think she wore out the album "Saturday Night Fever" way back when.  I love this picture because it shows her lovely smile...and boy, how I miss it. 

Happy Birthday, Little Sis!