2017 - Day 193/172 - Wednesday...

Nature versus nurture summarizes a long-running debate on whether human behaviour is determined by the environment, whether prenatal or during a person's life, or by their genes. The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English has been in use since at least the Elizabethan period and goes back to medieval French. The combination of the two concepts as complementary is ancient. Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual. Okay, thanks to the Wikipedias for that, but here is the deal. I have no issues with nature. It is natural for domesticated animals to try their best on occasion to roam free. It is the short-comings of their owners/handlers/trainers to keep their animals in check, or that makes them unworthy of keeping the animals. I have never had an issue with natures way; coyotes or wolves or birds of prey scooped up one of our cats one day, and the cat was never seen again. I assume we have, over the years, lost a chicken or two to coyotes or wolves, because chickens are stupid and they wander too far from where they are supposed to be and there is no 'natural' protection for them then. That is what happens out here on the edge of nowhere. BUT, once again, the neighbors (or I will just say the people who live on the property adjoining ours and I do not consider them neighborly at all) have allowed one of their 'allegedly' domesticated animals to come onto our property and attack one of our chickens. I Jody had not heard all the commotion, there would have been no proof of the accusation. But he shooed the dog off, and the chicken ran off. We assumed it was dead (there were lots of feathers all over the house and yard), but I saw her hunkered down in the bushes several hours later. Then she went into the coop and laid an egg, but we haven't seen here since. We will see if she shows up later this evening, and if she does, what condition she is in in the morning. I am tired of other peoples dogs coming and killing our chickens. ...and forty nine years ago today, my dad died... Deeds, Actions, Changes, OUT OF CONTROL DOGS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!