A dog attack

We returned home this afternoon to discover a mean and growling dog in our yard. I got out of the car to shoo it away and the dog continued to growl and look kinda scary. I wasn't sure which neighbor's dog it was (and I wasn't too keen on getting a closer to read his tag). But after a minute or so he ran off down the street and G. bounded out of the car (I told them not to get out until the dog was gone) in a panic about the chickens.

"Where are the chickens mommy!?!"

There weren't any around which I hadn't initially noticed so I wondered too.

After some scouting, we found the remnants from one chicken (very unpleasant for me let alone the kids) and only 3 clucking around the coop. We have 31 in total so there were a lot unaccounted for.

The feather trail is a tell-tale sign of a dead chicken nearby.

We did a head count about an hour later as L. fed them some pineapple (yeah, I didn't know they liked that either). All but 2 were accounted for, both very small bantams - "Napoleon" (a rooster who lived up to his name daily so we think maybe he'll turn up later) and "Napoleon's Sister, Annika." And as if it wasn't obvious, every chicken in the coop has a name and the girls insist they can tell them all apart. And to be honest, I don't doubt it. They spend a lot of time loving their pets.

As for the ducks, they're free range again and survived the dog attack.

I think I understand where that saying "Lucky Duck" came from now.