A Mighty RAWR!

We’ve been keeping busy doing summer stuff, which mostly consists of working in our gardens.

Last Sunday we had a visit from a couple that EJ went to high school with. He knew both the husband and the wife back then. I became friends with them when I was on Facebook, but had never met them in person until now. Correction: I met the husband a month or so ago when he was in the area and stopped in. Se had a enjoyable visit.

Early one evening last week I heard the chickens squawking in alarm. I almost didn’t check on them because I’ve never seen any threats in the past when they’ve sounded the alarm. I sighed and went out to check on them. I walked into their pen, which is quite large, and was surprised to see a large raccoon running along the side of the coop toward me INSIDE THE PEN. Most of the chickens were hiding in the coop; the others were running around with great alarm. I did the most natural thing I could do: I ran toward the raccoon with my hands up like paws and shouted, “RAWR! RAWR!” The raccoon turned around and bolted over the fence.

I then ran to the bedroom window, which overlooks the garden, and knocked on it to get EJ’s attention. He was in the living room talking on the phone to our son, but our house is small enough that he could hear my knocking. When EJ came to the window, I urgently motioned for him to come out. Then I ran back to the chicken pen and saw the raccoon circling outside the fence and again I yelled, “RAWR! RAWR!” It plunged into the forest.

We didn’t want to risk the raccoon returning so we herded the chickens inside the coop even though it was early. Chickens won’t go into the coop unless they CHOOSE to so it wasn’t easy. It was kind of like trying to intercept a football player who was running with the football. However, we finally got them all in and shut the door. This is the first real threat we’ve had to our chickens. There are predators in the area, but they are usually roaming about during the night when the chickens are all safely shut in their coop.

Raccoons are rather bold and I didn’t know if he would return for another attempt on the chicken pen so I’ve been keeping a close watch. However, I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the raccoon.

Apparently, I have a very mighty RAWR.