The Dog’s Blog: A Drew’s eye view – House Hens

Hi, I’m Drew and Sam and Ben are my humans. You probably haven’t heard much about me on here but that’s because I’ve got fur and not feathers. Sam has been my human for 14 and a half years. She rescued me when I was a baby after someone decided they didn’t want me, my brothers or sisters and abandoned us.

I had an older sister too, Roxy who was rescued from Manchester Dogs Home. She picked Sam to be her human and I think they both rescued each other. We had to say goodbye to Roxy on August 8th 2016, we are all still sad about this and miss her very much. I think that’s why Sam has started doing a lot more chicken stuff lately.

I’m sure you’ve already worked this out, but Sam loves to rescue things, especially when it comes to animals. She did try to rescue some horse poo once too – she was in the car with Ben (he was driving) and she noticed a dark brown furry lump in the middle of the road, “What is it?” she said, “and does it need rescuing?”. No surprise that Ben was laughing as he explained that it was a big pile of horse poo but that Sam was more than welcome to rescue it if she wanted to!

On Friday 23rd September, at night, and under the cover of darkness, a lady arrived with a large crate shrouded in blankets. It was being carried very carefully and Ben took it through to the dining room and put it on the floor next to Annie’s crate. The lady said hello to me and then went into the dining room with Sam. They both crouched down on the floor and lifted one of the blankets so they could see into the crate. My view of what was in there was blocked but I had my suspicions. Even though Sam and the lady were talking quietly, I could hear snippets of conversation and the thing in the crate was moving. This could only mean one thing – I went to my water bowl (which is near the dining room doorway) and pretended to have a drink. Once I was closer, my nose confirmed my suspicions, it was another hen.

Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mind hens, I’d just rather them not be in the house. Sam was watching Netflix one night and had a hen on her knee. I went over to say hello and was subjected to a vicious, unprovoked and sustained attack! Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but being pecked on the nose hurt! It was a precision peck, a direct hit and I never saw it coming. Since that day, if a hen comes in the house, I give it a wide berth!

At first I thought Sam’s resolve had crumbled completely and she’d  got yet another poorly rescue girl, but I was wrong. Apparently we were actually hen sitting for a week! Now, not only did we have Annie in the house, but we had Patsy too. Another beak to avoid.

I heard mum saying that Patsy was another girl from the BHWT September Lancs rescue who had a broken Femur. She was hobbling a bit but seemed quite active – definitely still a threat if the crate door got opened!

We’ve had quite a few ‘house hens’ as Sam does seem to find the poorly girls on rehoming days. Once we had four in the house and I was beginning to wonder who was in charge! I’ve come to terms with it now and this week, I actually helped Sam look after Patsy and Annie.

One day when Sam was at work I found the chicken food in a plastic bag, I opened it so I could give Annie and Patsy some more food. Unfortunately, the bag just shredded and went everywhere and so did the chicken food. I didn’t want to leave a mess for Sam, so I ate it all up. I thought I did the right thing, after all, it’s not like I really enjoyed it but Sam didn’t seem to appreciate it. I did get caught out a little bit when Ben took me for a walk, he couldn’t understand why I was pooping Sweetcorn until he realised that Sam had given it to Patsy and Annie. I’d just been cleaning up! I’d done a sweep of the floor area around the crates when Annie and Patsy were asleep, and simply picked up any stray bits!

Patsy and Annie were quite chatty girls, probably comparing notes about their poorly legs. I did have to put my paws over my ears a few times especially when they were trying to lay an egg. Talk about noise, I’ve ever heard anything like it! As if the noise and the chicken chatter wasn’t enough to contend with, there was also the poo. I have never seen a hen poop as much as Patsy did. As fast as the food went in one end (and she ate a lot!), it was coming out of the other end.

Patsy had to have medicine twice a day and Annie had to have it once a day, so when they were out of their crates, I steered clear. No point tempting fate is there? My living room and my couch weren’t invaded by the house hens this time because they needed to rest their legs so that made me feel less nervous.

Patsy and Annie did go in the top part of the garden sometimes when I was there but we kept our distance and had our own space. It was a bit like that scene in Dirty Dancing (Sam made me watch it), where Johnny and Baby have their own dance space but it was more like spaghetti legs than spaghetti arms here!

I know Sam likes looking after the house hens and I do think she does a good job. She likes animals and is really patient – even with all that poo! Patsy went home yesterday (Monday 3rd October) when the lady (who I found out is called Sophie) came to collect her. Sam was sad to see her go because at medicine time, Patsy used to walk out of the crate and onto Sam’s knee for snuggles and then fall asleep. Sophie will be Patsy’s Foster mum for a bit and then Patsy will probably go home. I think Annie misses Patsy as she sounded like she was making sad noises today. I tried to tell her it was OK but I don’t speak Hen. I felt a little bit bad for her but from my point of view, it’s one less beak to worry about!

So anyway, I survived the week – no pecks, no injuries and no close calls. Annie is still in the ‘big house’ so I’ll have to keep my eye on her until she goes in with the others, but I think it’ll probably be OK. I’d still rather have the house to myself but at least it’s only a hen in the crate, imagine if Sam had decided to rescue that big pile of horse poo!

Drew x