09/25/2026
I have never looked so hard for an animal as I have looked for this little chick in the past few days. I have concluded the full moon this week is the source of my trouble!
This morning’s story actually started out on Wednesday.
I was working out in the yard and heard distressed peeping coming from the back corner of the yard. That's where the little Houdan (a chicken breed with a tuft of tall feathers on the head) hen has been pirating her solitary chick she hatched. But there was no mama to be found on Wednesday. Just a very upset chick who darted into the burdock stand every time I tried to approach.
It took several sessions, but I finally caught him, closing it on evening when the sunset makes them groggy.
He came inside, got a heat lamp and a box, and was set up to become a house chicken. All was well.
He staged a couple escapes yesterday during the day, so I adjusted the box set up, and was finally confident I had him contained.
That was until I came inside for supper, and heard frantic peeping from, I was pretty damn sure, the basement.
Right about that time though I discovered my young Ruben puppy had taken older Kodi off on a lark, again. This has become quite common if they're out together, and I am working on addressing, but I wound up spending an hour driving the local roads, trying to figure out where Ruben's AirTag was pinging from off the local cell tower.
A neighbour finally caught them (they heard me calling, couldn’t figure out where home was, and went and sat on her porch) an hour later and I got to go home.
At that point little chick was completely quiet, so I did a sweep of the basement, gave up, and ran to pick up another load of food for the pigs after dark.
I returned to the basement, with a bright flashlight to cast a beam under shelving, in dark corners, and wherever I could think of. I would hear an occasional faint peep, but could not echo locate the little monkey.
After endless searching, I resorted to using my phone with a YouTube of a hen clucking to her chicks. That didn't work.
So I bought his heat lamp down, hung it up on a shelf near where I thought I had heard the peeps, and turned in for the night.
The dogs woke me up this morning, ONE got to go out first, and then the peeps started!
I raced to the basement, but the sound actually got fainter the farther down the stairs I got. After a quick look around, I ran back up and tried to hear him on the main floor, where he had started out. But the peeps were definitely coming from upstairs!
Bewildered, I ran back up towards the bedrooms, and there he was in the spare room under a dresser, peeping away.
I am 99% confident he was in that basement last night. How on earth this tiny thing migrated up two sets of stairs, let alone one set of stairs from the main floor of the second floor is absolutely beyond me. There IS a chance big Ruben caught him and transported him, but I’m pretty sure Ruben spent the whole night under the window in my room.
He's hunkered under his heat lamp in a reinforced box now, and I sure hope he stays put because I have a lot of things to get done today.
I know I need my hearing checked, probably my sanity at this point, and I need to get the dogs fenced in. But for now the little convict is safe where he belongs.
Anybody have some good name suggestions for him?
