My mom, MaLinda Reddell, has been a chicken owner for the past few years and we’re still learning new things every few months.
We spent Saturday morning last weekend removing the pool filter grids, washing them out, and loading a new set in – all to prepare for the summer season.
It almost felt like summer that day except for the gusty wind adding a bit of unexpected but welcome relief!
Honestly, mom’s been fighting with the pool nearly nonstop since Spring Break in March and we’ve been putting off changing the grids out.
If it isn’t one thing - like metal in the water or the wind blowing leaves and chicken feathers into the water - it’s trying to find the right balance of chemicals and running the vacuum to get the junk off the bottom of the pool.
That said, I wasn’t prepared to watch our big rooster Goldilocks fly across the pool and get after Penny for chasing one of his hens.
I have to preface this by saying that Penny has been an ‘on-leash’ dog since we got her and only gets to be free by slipping by us when we open the door.
She loves to chase the chickens and thinks we’re playing a game when we try to chase her and corral her outside after one of her many escape attempts actually succeeds.
The past few times she’s gotten out on accident and we’ve just let her run herself ragged with Goldilocks or our small Silkie rooster Beau will work on curbing her attentions with pecks and chasing her away from the hens.
Saturday was only a little different since we decided to try and let her be off-leash on purpose while working poolside.
I think we spent most of those first 15 minutes just making sure she didn’t fall into the pool or turn one of the hens into a Chick-fil-A sandwich.
Penny quickly learned that Goldilocks and Beau were NOT going to tolerate her behavior and pecked her a few times before she ran herself to exhaustion.
The only other times were when mom would take a break from pool and landscape work for water and to get out of the sun.
Penny is happiest when mom is just sitting on the couch catching up on shows and movies.
In fact, her elderly poodle Keechi is very much the same, but the dogs have to sit apart from each other or else they fight for mom’s attention.
And don’t get me started on the perceived disparity between pets, treats, and food bowls!
But, true to form, mom shares the love and spreads it out amongst all of our pets as evenly as possible.
Plus, the chickens certainly recognize her as the main feeder, water bearer, and keeper of treats which in turn makes it always hilarious to watch them come running the minute she opens the door.
Mom’s always been that way – she means everything to us kids and I’m always grateful for the example she leads in our lives.
