Two Late Nights

Aside from the usual interruptions from waking children and our needy dog, I've had other reasons to be awake at odd hours the last two nights. First, I was honored to attend one of my childbirth student's births. It is always a privilege for a couple to ask me to be there by their side as they work to bring their child into the world. As you may know, though, most babies enjoy arriving at inconvenient hours :-). So I got to bed around 4:30 AM that night. Well worth it, but the kids definitely watched more TV the next day while I snuck in tiny naps here and there.

   Then, last night posed a much different late night awakening. I was startled from my sleep at 1:30 AM when I heard the scream of one of our chickens. "Oh no!" I thought, "Caesar didn't go in the coop at bedtime like the rest of the chickens, and something must be attacking her outside of the coop!" I woke up Justin and we threw open the window to see if we could see or hear anything down at the chicken coop. Justin put on his coat and went outside, ready to see a ferocious coyote or fox tearing apart poor Caesar. In a few moments he realized the attack was actually happening inside of the coop (Caesar was doing just fine on a shelf in the shed). There stood a possum with his mouth full of feathers, stunned by the flashlight in his eyes. Two chickens, Symphony and Little Blackie, we're pacing up and down the run inside the coop. This night-time imposter had managed to squeeze through a rusted hole in the chicken wire. And so, what do you do with a possum trying to kill your chickens? Justin thought about attacking it with a shovel, but was afraid that if his attempt failed he could end up with possum teeth in his leg. So, I held the flashlight on the possum while Justin went inside to load our 22. Hopefully we didn't wake the neighbors as we put an end to the possum. We buried him and trudged back to the house to go back to bed. "I guess we could've just tossed him in the road to look like roadkill," I joked. But, we mostly didn't want our dog or any other critters trying to tear apart a possum in the night. Well, I'm happy to report that the chickens are alive and well... Their screams were enough to alert us to come to the rescue.

Now, I wouldn't mind getting a full night's rest tonight :-). Wish me luck.