We started allow the hens out of their coop in the evenings last week.

We didn't know if we were being wise or foolish in terms of what they would do with freedom or whether we would be able to get them back in if they hadn't flown away!

As it turned out there was no problem: they loved their time out, traveled the length and breadth of the garden and seemed to understand perfectly when we herded them back home.

And, today, I let them out when I was on my own...........I mean, with the cat rather than Sue.

The hens, who stick together wherever they go and whatever they are doing, seemed to be quite unperturbed by the cat, while the cat, who normally thinks little of me, was consumed with jealousy and kept rubbing against me and howling...........before making this approach.......

.............I intervened at this point, so it remains to be seen whether these antics were the beginnings of bonding or of an attack!