Why did the chicken lay on the road?
The age-old quesion, with a slight variation...
As I headed out to run yesterday about 6 a.m., I noticed an animal "blob" at the top of our driveway. As I got closer it didn't seem to be a normal road blob - was it a dead goose? a quail? Oh, ugh, it was one of our chickens. So I headed back inside to get help (read -male help!) in removing it from the road since Kirsten would be standing there in a little bit to catch the bus.
We came back to the scene armed with a shovel and proceeded to scoop up the chicken, when much to our surprise the dead "blob" stood up and ran away - um, into traffic, narrowly missing being actually made into an actual road blob by an oncoming car. Bill chased the chicken still armed with the shovel in the road for a few more tense moments, until it decided to run down the driveway for more familiar surroundings.
Hence, the question: Why did the chicken lay on the road?
My opinion: It has no brain.
Chicken-apologist opinion: It was a brilliant instinctive move to stay there in the light (of oncoming cars!?!) for protection. (We did lose one chicken that night to something in the coop, which leads to the obvious admission that we hadn't closed the coop door the night before.)
Rejoinder to this position: A safer defensive position would have been 20' up in a tree of which there are hundreds, instead of the white line/pavement defense.
Rejoinder Rejoinder: Just close that coop door, OK?