He Kicked Another Hen!

It was one day last week, Wednesday I think. We were each working on our outside chores, leaving each other alone. T L Ogre seemed a little more on edge than he had been the past several days. It was payday, and he had just gotten a new 'bottle'. He gets like this when he has had to go a couple of days without any booze (when he runs out before pay day), but he had stretched last week's bottle out and made it last the week. Yet he still seemed on that kind of edge he is when he gets a new bottle and he can't wait for the day to end so he can go sit in his tent, alone, and nurse on a little juice (or a lot).

Anyway, he was walking along the path, past a grouping of scratching hens, when one of my big hens walked across in front of him. That's it... just walked across his path. T L Ogre started raging and screaming "Damn pet chicken!", as he hauled off and kicked her hard, sending my unsuspecting and gentle hen flying about eight feet!

I complained, "Hey! What did you do that for?!" He looked up and saw that I had seen him do it. He justified in his shrill, squeaky, high anxiety voice, "She got in front of me! She's a damn pet chicken! I HATE pet chickens! I don't want them getting under my feet. She needs to stay out of my way." Then he got sarcastic and said in a very childish, sarcastic tone, "I'm not going to walk along doing a shuffle through them." as he made a sarcastic goofy face and demonstrated a stupid, shuffle waddle across the path. "They have to learn not to walk in front of me!"

My poor hen! He kicked her HARD! She had no idea what she had done wrong. She was so dazed and confused. They are free range chickens. She was just casually walking along,  pecking and scratching, head down to the ground pecking and eating, then all of a sudden, a huge foot hit her hard and sent her flying!! They walk around all over scratching and looking for food and this was right next to their chicken house where they congregate the most. They were just doing what chickens do. I don't think for a minute that it was really about the hen at all. He was just feeling anxious and just had to hurt something.  I am so afraid to leave to go anywhere. I'm so afraid of what he will do to my animals while I am gone. The monster should never be allowed to own any kind of animal at all!

Thanks for stopping in and have a beautiful day.

Signed - Betty Sue