My Very Own Elmyra

Do you remember her from your childhood?
(well, depending on how old you are)

Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toon Adventures

The animal loving little girl who, when she could catch one, would squeeze a cat or dog to death and say things like:

"I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever "

or

"I love cats, I love kitties, squeeze them into itty bittys!"

Well I just happen to have a chicken loving and squeezing "Elmyra" at my house

Asher has really become quite talented at the art of chicken catching and when he catches one he doesn't want to let it go. He gets so excited that he finally has one (it usually takes him awhile to catch one) that he goes a bit crazy on the loving and squeezing. He also likes to carry them around and rock them like babies. The poor chicken in these pictures is the one who seems to gets caught the most by him. I think she just gets tired of running and gives up. I'm amazed that she has made it out of his grasp so many times alive and with... most... of her feathers.
She is a really patient chicken.

This chicken chasing fetish probably isn't great for our chicken's mental health, but it is really hard to keep him away from them or to get him to put them down once he has them. The other day I had to chase him around the backyard for 10 minutes before he would put one of his "chicken captives" down. I'm sure I looked like a lunatic chasing after a giggling toddler with a squawking chicken under his arm and yelling "Drop the chicken, do you hear me! Mommy said DROP THE CHICKEN!"
I'm glad our neighbors work during the day.