Animal antics

You may remember that the previous owners of this house asked if we would like some chickens, to which I said yes, imagining that we would end up with about 10/12 extra chickens. I wasn't sure what we would do with the eggs, but was happy to have some extra ladies to add to my brood.....

{OK, I've given up! You'll just have to imagine a photo of a jumped up white cockerel lording it over the roost! I cannot get my photos to upload again - GRRRRRR!}

I ain't no lady!

And indeed he isn't. He is the loudest beast in town waking me any time from 4.30 onwards. To top it all, he has a brand new band of brothers developing too as we seem to have at least three more cockerels.
My poor ladies are horrified at this randy fellow chasing them all over the place.
Fortunately we have found someone with a smallholding a few miles away who will take him off our hands and, after a Facebook post by Mr D, we may have a taker for the teenage pretender who is following rapidly in his footsteps! The other two cockerels are still young, so they can stay for the time being, but they may not last long.
Even the ever gentle Mr D has been tempted into murderous thoughts in the early hours!

Talking of early hours, Mr D and I were woken at about 1am the other night by a loud noise outside. We had no idea what it was, but it sounded like an animal scrabbling about. Nothing could be seen outside and all seemed calm, so we went back to bed. About 10 minutes later more noise above our heads - my heart sank - "that sounds like a cat on the roof", I said to myself...sure enough, seconds later, loud meowing emanated from the roof above our window. Mr D and I ran out to see Freya perched precariously in the gutter, scared witless. We tried, unsuccessfully to entice her back over the roof with food but we realised she was stuck, so Mr D had to go back inside whilst I shine a torch upwards from the garden to illuminate the issue. He had to lean right out of our bedroom window, coax her along the gutter towards him and then reach out, grab her by the scruff and haul her back inside. What a hero!

Strangely enough, she hasn't been seen in the roof since! I think she was thrown by the steep angle and the slipperiness of the slate, rather than the tile she was used to at home. She even managed to dislodge a loose slate - miraculously it didn't break as it shot off the roof onto the front path. We'll have to get our builder to pop it back in.

So, as you can see it's all fun and frolics in the animal kingdom!