This is Vivienne’s story and how she became a stolen chicken. I need to start at the beginning of the story for you to understand that I didn’t just rush out and steal a chicken. It was around June of last year 2024, we were coming up the driveway and we saw about eleven chickens in the yard, now we knew what the neighbors had in their garage a few months ago. Let me first say I wasn’t a fan of chickens; birds freak me out a little, Over the next few weeks these chickens and there was only nine now, were always in my yard digging in my flower beds and digging holes in my yard I reached out to the neighbor several times. My little dogs were chasing them, and I was afraid they would catch one and hurt it. She said she would work on keeping them in her yard, clip their wings but this is something she never did. By this time, we were well into late July early August, if you have never been in North Carolina in the dead of summer it is hot and humid. You walk outside and you start to sweat. I was outside one afternoon and noticed there were only eight chickens, and they were walking around with their wings out and looked really hot, so I put out a pan of water. They wouldn’t come close, and I have no idea if they drank it. We live on about six acres some wooded but most is yard, on the other side of our driveway is a side yard and an old fence row that is between us and the neighbor’s yard, I was mowing this part of our yard, and I saw where they had the chicken coop. Now this chicken coop was inside a short dog lot that the door was closed, the chicken coop door was closed and the ramp for the chickens was on the ground. There was no water or food anywhere which made me a little upset, although I didn’t really care for chickens, I didn’t want any animal to be neglected. I watched for a couple of days to see if anything changed and took that time to do a little research on chickens. when I realized no one was taking care of them and they were roosting in trees I decided to provide them with food and water in my barn, it is an open barn, and they were already using it to get shade and dust bath. After I started feeding them they got really friendly and would come running when they saw me. I realized I really enjoyed chickens, they were funny and curious, still freaked me out a little when they would come running at me for the treats, I could feel any stress of the day melt away when I would sit and watch them. I had decided I wanted my own chickens and started researching what I needed for that to happen. By this time we were going into September and chickens has started to disappear I reached out to the neighbor telling her that I was pretty sure something was getting her chickens she made no effort to do anything as far as I could tell. By this time there were only five chickens left I had bought a 6×10 storage building that had to be build due to having extra windows put in. I had decided if the chickens would go in on their own that it would be for them and I would figure out how to add my own chicks to it. The building arrived in October and it took my husband and I a couple weeks to turn it into a coop and get nesting boxes ready, within a couple of days of it being ready we lost four chickens in one night. Vivienne was the only one left and I decided I was putting her in the coop if she wanted to go or not. We chased her all over the yard one evening until we caught her at sunset when she couldn’t see well locked her in the coop for a few days and build a temporary run. And that’s how she became a stolen chicken. As far as I can tell the neighbor hasn’t even looked for her chickens. I do have 13 chicks coming in May to keep her company. As soon as the weather permits we will be building a permanent secured run.