Being the overly cautious and undeniable Virgo that I am, I gave the chicks the large dog cage to sleep in, as I can close them up in there securely for the night, then added a couple of surplus wire cages on top to block the doorway in fully.
Then because I am a real Virgo through and through, I also added a spare rabbit hutch door, which I wedged in against the hinges of the wooden door to the room, effectively blocking off all the gaps above the cage and the gap under the door too.
Feeling that they were locked in pretty tightly I went off to bed quite happy.
At 1.30am this morning I was rudely awakened by the cries of a fox, and our numpty dog barking his little empty head off. I released said numpty into the night, and he actually ran in the right direction and managed to chase the fox off. I checked on all our birdies and bunnies and they were all in one piece but by the door of the piglet room I could see that the rabbit hutch door wedged in place had been disturbed, but unbreached. Score one for the Virgo traits within.
Speaking of our numpty dog, he will be 4 tomorrow. He is a Border Collie who appears not to have inherited any of the intelligent traits common in collies but all of the bouncy energetic nature.
I know Borders can be difficult dogs to own, hard to train and control and they do have several down sides to their intelligence, but we have been very fortunate in our dog's temperament, and he makes a wonderful pet. He has never worked as a herd dog, his natural inclination is to be herdee not herder, he has a small repetoire of tricks, and he is very conscious of his territory but not a guard dog as such, being more inclined to run back to you barking rather than seeing anything off his patch.
Anyway last night at 1.30 we were wandering around with a torch listening to the fox shouting at us from various fields. One of Arthur's tricks is to bark, run a tight circle and return on command, so we were wandering the lanes and I was sending him into fields randomly with him barking his happy little head off then coming back and being sent off again. I think he thought his birthday had come early.
Needless to say he is doing the sleep of the dead now, taking on the appearance of a great big smelly rug across the front door. May have to consider some form of fox chasing reward for his birthday treat tomorrow.
Today's gardening projects already completed, garden weeded, potatoes treated, colorado beetles squished, tomatoes transplanted, next lot of peas collected and frozen, poppy and sweet william seeds collected and redistributed throughout the flower beds ready for next year. Time for breakfast now.
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