Sweet Sadie – The Predator

When my stepdaughter comes to stay with us for a visit, she brings along her “designer dog” Sadie, a Japanese Chin. This 8 pound black and white yapping excuse for a real dog appears to be scared of her own shadow, never mind the other dogs and cat as well.

So I had no real concerns when I let her out with the big dogs to run around by the house and do their business. Until I heard the squawking ruckus in the hen house, that is. The little purse pooch had snuck her way under the fencing and was terrorizing the chickens.

Not truly convinced that Sadie’s little “smashed in” face with its incredible inbred under bite could actually chew on or harm a chicken, I walked over to the chicken yard and was stunned to see a chicken down – huddled protectively against the cold earth with her tail feathers scattered and back torn open. In shock, with her eyes glazed over, this hen was on her way out. Of course it was one of my favorites – a pretty tawny red Leghorn.

“Damn it,” I muttered as I unlatched the gate and chased Sadie out with a poorly-aimed kick. I scooped up the wounded hen and took her bloodied carcass inside our house.

Now chicken first aid was called for. Thanks to the PBS special “The Natural History of the Chicken”, I knew of individuals who had performed CPR on chickens and they (chicken and human) survived. I’ve doctored many of our animals since we’ve moved out here – an hour from my favorite veterinarian – but this was a first.

I had to rinse off the wounds and get an idea of the extent of the injury. So off to the bathtub we went, the chicken lying quiet and passive in my arms. Placing her in the tub, I ran hot water into a mug and mixed in equal parts of hydrogen peroxide. Then I poured two cupfuls over the gaping wounds on the hen’s back and tail area. There was some “sizzling” and then the blood and gunk began to run clear. Wow. I saw more of a live chicken then I had ever wanted. (As a former vegetarian who recently began eating fowl and fish, I think chicken will be off the menu again.)

Then I placed the hen on newspaper in a cardboard box and placed it in the warm sunny greenhouse. I added a small container of water and some fresh lettuce greens, but wasn’t expecting much in the way of recovery. A few hours later, I went in to check on my chicken and she seemed… better. Less in shock and having eaten her greens, this chicken was turning out to be a survivor. This progress warranted another H20 and Hydrogen Peroxide baptism and a fresh box change.

The hen is now recuperating in the small half-bath, calm and content in her box. Her wounds seem to be healing and her appetite remains good. I wonder if her little hen friends are missing her and fearing the worst. Her recovery is truly amazing as I’ve found chickens to be such delicate, warm weather creatures.

As for Sadie, little unsupervised “recreation” time exists for her out on our land. It was a lesson to be learned; predators come in all shapes, sizes and inbreeding. Making her into a little “Miss Priss” of a pooch still can’t conceal the true nature of canines. My dogs and cat were trained to control their instinctive natures at young ages, giving rise to a false sense of animal harmony that prevails over here on an everyday basis.

In remembering the Bible quote - “And the lion will lie down with the lamb”, I believe that would have to depend on exactly which individual lion was actually going to be lying next to the naïve little lamb.

Published in the Feb. 2009 edition of the Colorado Central.