Mason

just lying in the dirt near the fence with its neck stretched out.

The coop door was still latched.

The wire wasn't bent.

I had no idea how it got outside unless it had slipped through a gap somewhere, but I couldn't find one big enough.

The other chickens were pressed into the far corner of the coop, silent.

I'd been around chickens before, their noisy, stupid little things most of the time, but these were frozen there, all bunched together, not making a sound.

Duke wouldn't come near the dead chicken.

Roscoe wouldn't even leave the porch.

I used a shovel to move it into a trash bag, and that was when I saw more deer tracks.

They were all around the coop.

Not one set either.

It looked like something had walked around the chicken coop several times, close to the wire, close to the door, and then back toward the wash.

I took pictures because I thought Carla might want to know.

The tracks looked normal at first.

but the longer i looked the more i noticed they weren't spaced right some were close together some were too far apart a few were pressed so deep that i could see where the dewclaws had dug in behind the hoof it looked like an animal had been walking slowly and then suddenly lunging or hopping

I texted Carla the pictures and told her about the chicken.

She didn't respond for a while.

When she finally did, she only wrote, Keep dogs inside tonight.

Don't go out after sunset.

That was all.