Chicken Eater

We’ve had an eventful couple of days, that’s for sure! And we’re sending our love, too!

bug petroglyph at Los Cusingos

Mom and Dad’s last day was spent wandering through Los Cusingos, Alexander Skutch’s bird sanctuary that is about 5 mins down the road. We followed a treasure map through the jungle all the way to some amazing petroglyphs. I’ve never seen so many in one place!

Aaaaand, well…we have a bit of a chicken killer on our hands. Not one of our chickens, (that might have been less terrible), but a chicken that was happily living down the road.

spiky jungle trunk

Yesterday Isaac and I went out for a walk with the dogs. We talked about whether or not Koda should be on leash, and how WEIRD that seems to Costa Ricans. According to Isaac, Ticos don’t “walk” their dogs; their dogs follow them wherever they go. They would never go for a walk with the purpose of exercising their dogs. Anyways, we had almost made the whole loop when we lost Koda to the next yard.  There was barking, and squawking, and flapping, and the next thing we saw was Koda pass by with a cute little grey chicken in his mouth. We’d been calling him, and he was not listening so off we both went trying to catch the beast. Fun, a game!!! Of course, he continued to dodge us until he ran up into a little wooded area, and returned, sans chicken. He knew he was in trouble, and if he didn’t, the tackle from Isaac made it clear.

walking the jungle path

We didn’t know whether or not he had killed the poor chicken, and no one was home at the house. Soooo, today on our way home from town, we stopped by.  Isaac had to deal with it, because I’m next to useless as far as explanations and apologies in Spanish go. It ended up being the house of a girl who went to school in Quizarra with Isaac, and remembered him and his brothers. She hadn’t even noticed a chicken missing, so her and Isaac took a little walk. They found the chicken, and yes it was dead. We apologized x 10, and offered money but she refused to take anything. She was really, really good about the whole thing and said she understood. It was sad though, because she had bigger hens for laying, and then about three little, docile chickens that were basically her pets and who came into her house, and followed her around. Of course, he had to eat one of the sweet ones!

alacran in the sleeping cabin

Oh, and to top that off, the day before yesterday Koda nipped a little boy, who was coming up to visit the horses with Rocio, on the bum! All I could hear was crying, and screaming in Spanish. I decided selfishly to let Isaac deal with that one. Of course, because we ARE NOT in Canada, the mom was tearing a strip off her little boy, and didn’t say one thing about the dog. Apparently she had told him to stay next to her, and not run off as they were walking up the driveway. He didn’t listen, and came flying past Koda, and turned around and went flying past him in the other direction. Koda gets excited about small moving things (chickens, niños…etc.) Costa Rica forgive us!