Early Release Day

Those of you enamored of the chicken stories are in luck. Shaggy's Auntie (sorry, Wendy) Diane called this morning to ask if Ray could build a structure for Pollo-non-grata. Of course I agreed to it. Who knows who will need a place to sleep some night and a condo in the chicken pen might not be so bad. Ray's a builder so you know it would at least be to code, whatever the hell that means on Cortes. In the meantime, I told her that today was the next assigned day to see if we couldn't reintroduce Papillon to the flock. I let the gang out to wander and eat their bugs and rocks. I dismantled the pen-within-a-pen and Papillon slowly, vigilantly edged out. She bolted for the coop, even with her gamy leg making hard to run in a straight line. In a minute or so she was out, this time listing in the opposite direction as she ran aimlessly. She stayed in the larger enclosure. When I brought her torturers back, they seemed to ignore her. Were they waiting for me to leave? Do they have that kind of guile? Are they duplicitous? Diane reminds me, "After all, they are the original birdbrains..." She's right. They probably have no evil plan, but as soon as I post this, I'm going back up the hill.