Screaming bloody murder, I felt helpless against the attack. Using whatever means I had to defend myself, I kicked at the thing, meeting open air as the fowl deftly averted my foot. Undeterred, it came back at me with a vengeance.
Earlier in the day I had received a text from our neighbor asking if I’d let her girls out to peck that afternoon as the days were warm and spring-like. She’d asked us a few times before. Accommodating her 15-member brood of hens, we’d go down and open their henhouse door, letting them free range in the yard.
“No problem,” I responded as usual.