Adventures in grocery shopping...they just happen

Suzyq2u · #1 09/28/13, 08:32 PM

So I went to the store this evening.
Needed to pick up just a handful of things.
Little did I know what awaited me.
Having said 'no thanks' to the always helpful baggers inside,
I came out to the truck with my few items. Loaded the bags in the cab,
and walked around the corner only to stop dead in my tracks.

Was any one looking?...did anyone see?
As not to startle I didn't move an inch.
I stood there like a statue much like you imagine someone
coming around a corner and finding themselves face to face
with a vicious bear or maybe a tiger that was growling and
clawing in their direction.

There, on the ground, next to our truck was none other...
yes, none other...
than the very hen I had chased out of the bed of the truck
about an hour earlier.
She had been trying to lay an egg and I shooed her off.

Not well enough it would seem!

At first I thought, "I'll just leave, no one will ever know it was mine..."
I took a few steps towards her, she darted off towards the road.
Nope. I thought - $8 hen, not worth being splatted.
I started to leave once more and she stopped by some other parked cars.

UGH, I have to at least TRY to catch this dumb critter.
Trying turned into digging through the truck for any stale item
I could find to toss in her direction to try to lour her back my way.

She ducked and dived in every direction to elude just past tips of my grasp.
I collected all sorts of stares, smiles and points. And probably a few camera clicks
from the oh-so-popular cell phone cams these days.

Followed up with me calling back "Yes, that's really what I'm doing!"
I even had some that seemed to have sympathy.
About 20 min into my adventure a bagger asked if I needed a hand.
Any extras sure wouldn't hurt!

The bagger and I continued to chase the wayward hen for another 10 minutes
or so, nearly catching her a few times before she crossed the road.
I then had to resign myself to the fact that I was never going to catch
that speedy bird.

Beyond reluctantly I left her, likely to be the night's meal for the pawn shop owner's guard dog.

Our darling daughter's only response to the phone call explaining the adventure and why I couldn't answer the
phone was....

"AGAIN?!"

I guess 'these things' just happen -- at least to us

(PS the first time we caught the hen, a good 2.5 years ago lol)

lemonthyme7 · #2 09/28/13, 09:07 PM

That is funny! reminds me of a rooster that got into my sisters van when she went to town and she didn't know it was in there until she opened the back door to get something out. Of course it jumped out and she couldn't catch it. She finally gave up. like you, and went home. A couple days later there was a picture of it in the local small town paper with a blurb about a rooster that had showed up out of the blue in town and no one knowing where it came from!

Suzyq2u · #3 09/28/13, 10:53 PM

I know I could so see it happening too - gah! LOL

HOTW · #4 09/29/13, 06:47 AM

We had an article about a white chicken hanging aeound a neighbouhood and noone could catch it and then the followup of the ACO who caught it one night while itwas roosting in a tree. They all acted like he was amazing!

AR Cattails · #5 09/29/13, 10:21 AM

Awww, the poor misguided hen. I know I wouldn't have gotten any sleep last night and I would have gathered reinforcements and headed back over to give it one more chance to find her first thing this morning. I hope she's ok.

Wolfy-hound · #6 09/29/13, 11:10 AM

I transported some chickens from my aunt to a friend and one managed to escape during the transfer to my friend's cages. We chased it and it kept popping back up for hours.

I was all for going "Bye chicken!" to begin with as I've chased plenty of chickens in the past and in my experience, a chicken that doesn't want to be caught ain't likely to be caught in the open with plenty of things to hide under/around.

But with all the other people convinced we could catch it because "it's just a chicken", we had to chase the thing. I wrote it up as a funny.

I mean, I felt bad that I couldn't catch it, but once it was loose, I knew it wasn't just going to be caught again. My aunt had to trick it into a pen and even then almost didn't get her hands on it.

pinfeather · #7 09/29/13, 11:50 AM

We somehow ended up with an old long handled pool-skimming net - not sure why, we don't have a pool. That old thing helped out with stray chickens more times than I'd like to think about! Of course, it wouldn't have helped at the grocery store.

I used to work in an old converted warehouse next to a bay. A little white chicken lived in the line of bushes between my work and another warehouse. People used to come by just to feed her and she'd poke her little head out when they'd backed away about five feet. She was very crafty! Your chicken sounds like a good candidate for a warehouse pet.

gracielagata · #8 09/29/13, 01:19 PM

I would so loved to have seen you doing that- and certainly would have stopped my day to help you as well.

Promise. Though I would have been laughing all the while- hopefully *with* you, not at you. :P
We are newish to chickens... started w 3 hens, then were gifted 5 more hens and a rooster, all 6ish month olds. The rooster escaped on the first evening... we tried to chase him.. he was much faster and smarter than the hens in the pursuit (plus we were quite timid- a rooster?! Heck no we aren't touching him, he might get our eyes with his non-existent spurs!! lol)...
Fast forward a day, we have given up, surely he is coyote chow... my DH and I are walking to our gate to shut and lock it... it is early evening- dusk out. We hear the littlest 'roo-rooo-rooo- ROOO' (not even enough of a full crow to have the C's lol) Look up, dang bugger is up 10 ft in a tree at the edge of our property. He HAD to know we would save him, that he was tired and hungry... so we chased him down, and played rooster hockey... I won... needless to say he and the other newbies went in an escape proof pen for a few weeks! lol

nehimama · #9 09/29/13, 01:58 PM

That's quite an adventure!

Sanza · #10 09/29/13, 11:46 PM

In my town someone who will remain unnamed likes to let a bantie or 2 loose in the ravine every spring. In the fall one particular woman worries about them freezing over winter and calls me to try catch them. Of course I don't have a long enough net...lol, so they are trapped by the fish cops and given to any random local chicken raiser.......and the following spring another 1 or 2 magically turn up again. People in town have a hayday taking pictures and talking about the banties - where they come from, and the time when the rooster starts crowing in the morning. Lol
Every town should have a few running around!

gracielagata · #11 09/30/13, 08:12 AM

Ha that is so funny! At least it is a fairly benign sort of prank

Chief Cook · #12 09/30/13, 04:05 PM

Susyq2you, just remember, it is these adventures that keep us young. Or at least young at heart.

Suzyq2u · #13 09/30/13, 04:39 PM

I have no doubt she'd have plenty to eat (or be eaten - she's had a good life and apparently a field trip)- so I'm trying not to be upset about it and make it funny

And not go hide under a rock!! LOL

Snowfan · #14 10/01/13, 10:16 AM

Did the hen ever lay an egg? Thanks for sharing that. It's good to know it's not just me.

simi-steading · #15 10/01/13, 10:36 AM

You have a much better chance of herding cats than catching a rogue chicken... I think I would have looked for a big rock, and tried to put it in the stew pot for tonight's dinner..

Suzyq2u · #16 10/01/13, 01:34 PM

Nope, no egg in the back -- she's a new layer (if she's laid at all), only 5mo. Oh well!

sandsuncritters · #17 10/01/13, 02:36 PM

I read this thread yesterday, and was so hoping I'd see that she had been caught and returned safely to you. I'm so sorry Suzy

You never know, you might find her hanging out in your parking space next trip to the store!

I have many, way too many chickens of all ages but each one is a special little personality and I grieve each loss.

Then I say Grace and slather on the Q sauce

In His Love
Mich

Suzyq2u · #18 10/01/13, 04:24 PM

I went back up there for something today - no sign of her.
That's okay - I imagine she'll be the 'ghost chicken' with friends
telling me of sightings

We too have many chickens - and each is a little different. It's funny
how people can ask "But you have so many, how do you know one's missing"
and all I can reply is they're all a little different (color and personality).
Alas, they're egg layers or meat and we do what we have to and are thankful for
their lives and what we have....even if it's just a silly story about loosing one!

Freya · #19 10/02/13, 08:57 PM

For years to come you will hear of these "Chickenfoot" sightings.

Rainy · #20 10/03/13, 03:34 PM

Speaking of "Chicken sightings"..lol so thought of you yesterday when we were on our way to Emporia Kansas.... down the road as we are driving, here comes this chicken on the other side... walking down the road as if it owned it... it was just to funny, that thing didn't have a care in the world..