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Scuba diving chickens

I mentioned before that we have chickens, right? And I also mentioned that we had Silkies and then didn’t, right? Well, we have another Silkie. A rooster, this time. Actually, for the longest time, we weren’t sure if the Silkie was a rooster or a hen. Silkies are pretty quiet for chickens and this one was also really timid on top of being quiet. But what I’ve since figured out, aside from the fact that he’s a rooster, is that he’s not so much timid as pensive.

Yes, pensive. This chicken is pensive. First off, he’s rather young and the only boy. The other six chickens we have are all hens. He’s probably lonely and uses his imagination to keep himself company. Of course, if we had another rooster, they’d probably fight. But at least he wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

He’s also kept in the front yard by himself. The chickens in the back had been sick (no, not bird flu) and we didn’t want the Silkie to get sick as well. So he was quarantined in the front yard. I’m sure that just reinforces his loneliness. He’s different from the others in so many ways. And so to combat this terrible, aching loneliness, he retreats to his imagination and thinks about what he wants to be when he grows up.

So, what does he want to be when he grows up? A scuba diver. It’s so obvious.

You see, I first noticed the Silkie’s affinity for water his first day at our house. He was penned in the front yard close to the front door while we were setting up a house for him. And when I came home from work, the dogs burst excitedly from the house (yes, burst) and ran up to see me. This startled and upset the Silkie terribly. Terribly. He made a racket and immediately jumped into his water bowl for safety. His water bowl barely fits his butt, but he apparently felt safer in there. Why? Because obviously you can escape rabid, predatory dogs by diving into water. Granted, my dogs are not rabid and arguably not very predatory (at least Choco), but how was the chicken supposed to know that?

He’s repeated this behavior a few more times with Yaris. Now, Yaris is the more predatory one of the two dogs, but we had explicitly told her that she had to make friends with all the chickens. I think she’s accepted that and she gets along with the chickens in the backyard (when they all decide to escape from the pen). That is to say, the chickens ignore her when she’s far away and when she gets too close for their comfort, they move away. Yaris doesn’t chase them around without good reason (we have told her that wanting to eat one is not a good reason) and the chickens accept that. The Silkie…not so much. He jumps into his water bowl.

And finally, we recently discovered that the Silkie is, in fact, a rooster. He decided to give a crow the other day. It was…not an impressive crow. It sounded garbled and muffled. Like if he were underwater. Scuba diving. Aaaand…there’s my proof. This particular chicken wants to be a scuba diver.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course

Hey, I found this!  I’m fond of this story, so here’s a reposting (from a previous blog)!  Also, the dog in question is Choco.  Yaris wasn’t around yet.

We recently remodeled the front yard so that half of it is walled off from the street. My mother then proceeded to plant flowers and such along the inside of the wall, facing the house, as one of her hobbies is gardening. Since the front yard is walled, I felt ok about letting the dog run out there sometimes. It’s not like she can do much damage in our own yard. That apparently is untrue. You see, my dog is secretly a horse.

The first time I let her out in the front yard, she was quite happy, as she didn’t used to get to play in the front of the house that often. So she went exploring, as dogs do, and went over to sniff at the flowers my mother had planted. I wasn’t paying that much attention to her, but out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw her try to take a bite out of one of the blossoms.

Wait…what? By the time I had fully focused on her, she had already wandered off and was exploring other parts of the yard. I figured I was just seeing things as it didn’t look like any of the flowers were missing. At any rate, I shooed her inside and that was the end of it.

But this continued to happen when I would let my dog into the front yard. It would always seem like she was taking bites out of the flowers out of the corner of my eye and I was never quite fast enough to actually catch her in the act. The flowers never seemed to diminish in number, so I always thought I was just imagining things.

Finally, I decided I would just watch her the entire time she was out in the front yard. I mean, seriously, am I always imagining my dog eating flowers in the front yard? How ridiculous is that? She’s not a horse. Why would she be interested in flowers? So, I let the dog out into the front yard again. She again went exploring to see what might have changed from the last time she was out there. She paused by the flowers, this time by the tree in the middle of the yard, and then she proceeded to eat one of the blossoms and ran off.

Wait…what? She really ate one of the flowers! Moderately horrified at what my dog horse had done, I shooed her back inside the house and made sure my mother hadn’t seen what had happened. If she would ask, I would just blame the rabbits. I would hide the identity crisis my dog was having to try and spare her the shame and ridicule.

Since that incident, my dog hasn’t really been too interested in the flowers in the front yard when she’s out there. She seems much more interested in trying to open the gate to run out toward the street and play. I thought maybe she’s realized she is a dog after all. Until I caught her taking furtive bites out of the leafy tops of the vegetables my mother grows in the backyard. Sugh.