Last night as I was putting Lindsay to bed, Neil and I heard the most horrible screaming sounds. I thought it was our cat having a seizure, but Neil realized it was coming from the backyard. It didn’t take another second to realize that it was our chickens and they were under attack.
Neil, very bravely, ran outside armed with a flashlight and a long stick. Raccoons can be very vicious, so this was putting himself at risk of being attacked. When he went out there, the raccoon was inside the large run and was battling with our silver-laced Polish hen Andie. The raccoon ran away when Neil went in there, so fortunately Neil didn’t have to fight it off. The run was filled with Andie’s feathers, but there didn’t seem to be blood anywhere.
The little door on the coop showed signs of being pried off by strong raccoon hands, so we couldn’t just lock it up and go to bed with a clear conscience. Especially since the raccoon was still sitting in the tree watching the coop. I stood guard, while Neil rigged some raccoon-proofing. The ropes actually run through the inside of the coop and underneath it, so there was no way a raccoon was going to get inside.
Andie was understandably rattled. She was pacing back and forth in the run to the point that I was worried that she either had a head injury or was going into shock. Finally she went to bed and is fine this morning. Neil was impressed at the fight she put up against the raccoon. Lulu (the one who fearlessly attacks me) hid in the coop like a big coward.
