Sunday, August 24, 2008

Huge Freakin' Spider & The Great Chick Escape

For the last few days I've been taking care of my sister's animals while they are at the Grange Fair in PA. Mom goes in the mornings and I have the evenings. Well....

DAY 1 - Thursday Evening:

I fed the cats and the fish, went up to Lacee's room to feed her bird. What a feat that was! Laura, Lacee... my arm is not that small. What were you thinking? I managed to get the food dishes out, but the water thingy... you got to be kidding.

I managed to wedge my arm in far enough to manipulate it somewhat with the tips of my fingers, pushing it out of the holder at an angle, thus spilling the contents all down my arm. Yes, you can imagine how pleased I was at that! Now, my arm is wedged in there, so I'm having difficulty getting it back out... the bird is displeased, I am displeased (to put it nicely), but I finally got it out. I got clean water, filling it to the top knowing that I won't be attempting this part again unless an emergency. I got my arm wedged back in, so afraid the little bars were gonna get all bent out, but I got in there and managed to get the water thingy back in without spilling too much. Unwedged my arm again... put the food dishes back in, then went in the bathroom to wash my hands and arm. Got all scrubbed and as I'm standing there, hands and arm dripping, looking around... there are NO TOWELS! Okay, 'nuff said!

I went out to do the chickens, ducks, and turkeys. I opened the barn door and had a small heart attack! Right there at the entrance is a large can and at the bottom of it is a HUGE FREAKIN' HAIRY-A** SPIDER!! Gave me the freakin' willies! Now I'm not real thrilled to go into the barn... don't know if Mr. HUGE FREAKIN' SPIDER has friends or not. I walk sideways past it... making sure it doesn't move... got the corn, had to put my hand down an opened bag to get the mash! I'm thinkin', "Yeah, right!" Who knows what the heck is in there! So I slowly start inching my fingers down... eyes squinched tight, head turned away (don't know why, don't see how that will help if I did come across something). I guess it's just part of making your body do something it doesn't want to or knows it shouldn't do. Anyways, as I start walking out of the stall I get run over by Mr. HUGE FREAKIN' SPIDER and a wild chicken in hot pursuit! I think she got it... she chased it into the other stall so I didn't see how the pursuit ended, but she had something sticking out her beak. Could've been Mr. HUGE FREAKIN' SPIDER'S legs or maybe something else laying in there. Still, I had to take my shoe off to make sure it hadn't escaped there... you know, the pursuit happened so fast, I really couldn't be sure what I may or may not have seen... I had to be sure, just in case! *shivers*


Day 2 - Friday Evening:

Pretty uneventful.


Day 3 - Saturday Evening:

Everything was going well until I opened the top of the chicks cage... someone had put a small box in the corner and two of the chicks used it to bounce off the top and out of the cage... I managed to stop one chick. OH GREAT!!! Now what am I supposed to do... well Laura, I have a sneaking suspicion of what may have happened to the other babies and mama... Harry may have happened. He was on them like white on rice! He even went after one of the bigger chickens.

I started chasing the chicks (and Harry). Someone had left the TKD pole thing out there, so I used that trying to herd the chicks. After the first failed attempt, I managed to get one back over to the chicken house, it went in the side cubby which I covered with the chair, I went in the door, closing it behind me and trapped the chick in one of the barrel nests. One down, one to go! YEA ME!

The other one was being more difficult... so I enlisted Harry's help. He chased it around, wearing it down... at one point he had hold of the end of it, not a good hold so it got away... but he obviously sees much better than you all thought. He finally chased it into the scrap tubing pile behind the barn. I picked up one coil and saw it wedged beneath stuff... easy pickin's from there! Thanks Harry. It only took about 45 mins to an hour.

Was gonna go to mom's when I was done... but after that, I went home... all sweaty and out of breath! So, Laura, don't be surprised if I'm not all so eager to help out next time.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

YOU GO GIRL!! I am proud of you. Once I saw that spider it would have been all over with. Those darn animals could have killed each and starved to death...I would have been out of there!

Love, Aunt Shari

Anonymous said...

omg. xD That's terrible.

When it comes to Sammy's water.. I actually get a cup of water and fill it up by pouring water into it, not taking it out. I'm planning to reorganize it when I clean his whole cage again. Sorry for the fussing.

Spider... yeah.. spiders suck. I so know that feeling. But you can usually get a chicken to eat 'em, yeah.

And we thought the cats might have been an issue... :\ But yeah, those chicks are fast and.. not too fond of humans. They're hard to catch, so I commend your success. xD

Thanks for looking after everyone while we were gone. :3

Michelle said...

Shari: The thought crossed my mind!

Lacee:

Sammy's water - would have been good to know... lol

Spider - very grateful to chicken

Chicks - at first I thought, "Ok, you guys are out for the night... I'll never catch you!" Then I saw Harry go after them and figured they would never make the morning. I am amazed I actually got them back in. Thank you Harry. That would have been a video for YouTube! LOL

Anonymous said...

I would have LOVED to have seen you tiptoeing around that spider while calculating in your head all the ways you're going to make Laura pay.... he he he

artisticace'smom said...

Too Funny....What happenned to the farmgirl who used to be in there?
I just tried to catch the chicks to put them out in their other cage and two flew out. At least Harry wasn't there waiting to pounce! You know, it's not like we don't feed that fat cat.
Thanks for coming over each day and doing this for us, I really appreciate it!