Animal Scat

All our chickens got eaten. 

In like a day or two.

It was rather a shock.

And sad.

And boggling.

Whatever got our three huge geese must have come back for everything else.

(Actually, one chicken still remains. Our rooster. And he appears to be in a state of great depression over it all.)

We set up a game cam--hoping to find what has been getting them. 

So far it has captured only four suspects: 

1. Our van 

2. Anders

3. Mike

4. ... Some doves

(Until we can prove one of the four above was truly to blame, Mike suggested we tie our rooster to a stake--like in Jurassic Park--as bait so we can finally get whatever has been coming onto the farm on camera. He was joking. He was JOKING! We've locked our rooster safely in a run near his coop. ... So he can continue on his lonely little life.)

The other day Mike went to the farm to look for animal scat in hopes of identifying what we are dealing with. (Most likely foxes or coyotes, but there are different rules about trapping them, so we would like to know which animal is actually responsible before deciding how to proceed or daring to get more chickens.)

Several of the kids went with Mike on his scat hunt.

When they arrived at the farm Starling climbed out of the van and cheerily called, "Dad, can I climb a tree while you look for poop?" And then she dashed off without a second thought.

And when Mike told me, I wondered just what we've become. (As if Hans touching the electric fence the other day because a friend dared to isn't enough. ...)

Anyway. Here they are. Some of these backwoodsy kids we are creating. (Note: the chicken below is not one of our deceased chickens, rather, a neighbor's that wandered into our goat pen.)

Of course mostly Mike is to blame. 

I just follow where he leads because I like him so much. (Making me some tiny bit more of an innocent party to this madness of goats and geese and chickens and coyotes and their scat and so forth!)