The Agrinautica

   I woke up abruptly in the early predawn blackness this morning, to the sound of squawking chickens. The chicken coop is not far from my room, so I could hear them quite well, and easily pictures feathers flying all over the place as a fox ravaged them.
   So I got up and went out to see what could be done about it. But as soon as I left my room I found a situation I had not expected -- my housemate is chasing chickens around the house, and as soon as she sees me she starts apologizing and saying over and over again "this has never happened before!"
   Apparently, what happened is that she was headed to work and had gone to let the chickens out of their coop. But at the time she opened the coop she had the door to the house open, not fifteen feet from the facing coop door, and the light on in the house. The chooks, as they call chickens in Australia (one of the very best Australianisms in my opinion), made a beeline for this illuminated beacon, right from the coop into the house. Once in the house they proceeded to hide under furniture, poop everywhere, and set up wild squawking when she got close to actually capturing one of them.
   One by one we were able to corral and catch the wily birds, though some of them evaded us from room to room, under beds and out the other side. And then I went back to bed. Gosh dang chooks!