Loose Chickens
My eyes adjusted quickly to the hazy light of early morning in my bedroom as I woke with a start at 6:23 am to the sound of wood splitting and the insistent sound of annoyed chickens coming from our chicken coop. A chicken in danger makes an unmistakable scream that is both a plea for help and a likely final expression of life. Like a mortar shell or banjo, by the time you hear this kind of chicken scream, it’s usually too late. This is not the kind of chicken sound I was hearing. Imagine if a chicken could yodel. That’s what I heard. I threw on my glasses and went running down the stairs and out the door onto the deck. Clapping my hands and yelling “whoop! WHooooop!” I saw the bear run back into the woods and away from the coop. I didn’t hear any chickens screaming or even irritated yodeling, so I figured they had either survived the bear visit or were all dead. Either way, I was going back to sleep. …