into thin air

Ryan and I are so sad. Our chickens, Mattie & R00, have been missing since Tuesday. Though they know how to get out of our fenced-in yard, they peck and scratch happily within our view and always come back to their chicken mansion for their night's rest by sundown. But for the past week there has been no sign of them - not a single feather - and Ryan even asked around the neighborhood for any information on their whereabouts. What has become of them? The three possible scenarios we have come up with:

1) There's a random coyote who roams around the neighborhood at night. We've never seen him, but our friend John and others have. This scenario is unlikely though, as the chickens sit up on a perch at night and we would have surely heard a struggle with a coyote.

2) When Ryan was asking around, he talked to a friendly merchant whose business is practically in our backyard. She saw some older kids teasing the chickens not long ago and told them to cut it out. Demented kids being demented kids, they could have taken the chickens and...well, I don't really want to think about it.

3) The final scenario may sound far-fetched, but it fits best with my Nancy Drew-like sensibilities. Last week, this woman who owns another business behind us came knocking on our door, after asking all of our neighbors who the chickens' owners were. She explained rather earnestly that she was interested in our eggs and was willing to trade for the food her business sells or just pay us cash. I told her I would talk to Ryan, and the next day she came by yet again asking for eggs. He kindly gave her six eggs for free, but explained that the chickens don't lay nearly enough that we can give her a dozen eggs every week or anything. We haven't seen her since, but I could totally picture her chicken-napping them and holding them captive for their eggs. This would be a sad fate indeed for our freedom loving chickens!

I just hate not knowing if they are alive or dead. I hope that if they met their maker, their end was swift and painless, and that if they are still alive, they are being treated well and are happy. We miss you, Mattie and Roo! We will miss your delicious free eggs, as well (but not your poo!)

La Rouge (Roo) and Matilda (Mattie), Christmas day, 2009