Plan B was successful, at least for today. We dropped some corn on the ground in front of the barn, went inside the barn with two cans of cat food. The cats instantly wised up to this plan and went skittering into the barn where we placed the two containers of food on top of the hay bales.

I positioned Red between the chickens and the barn door and I told him to “stay put, hold the chickens,” and he looked dubious. The contrast between Red with the sheep and Red with the chickens is fascinating to me, in the pasture he puffs up like a wolf, is confident and focused, practically daring the sheep to mess with him. With the chickens, he holds his ground, but they do not accept herding and are not the least bit afraid of him. Our chickens are afraid of Frieda, they avoid her, but they seem to make individual judgements about the dogs. They are not afraid of Lenore either.

Red did hold the chickens off until the cats ate, and then I released him, the only mistake I made was not watching Lenore who rushed over to the area (as soon as Red and I moved away) and ate the meal for the chickens. Well, I said to the chickens, serves you right.