Have You Seen Me?

I just sneezed 5 times in a row. That has to be my record and it's because I've been crawling, flashlight in hand, around my living room floor looking for a chicken. Unfortunately the only thing I've managed to find is enough hair to make up a small sized dog.... no feathers!! I packed our 4 Australorp chicks in their crate last night... covered them securely and went to bed. This morning, there are just 3. No blankets thrown aside... no tell tale feathers strewn about which would have told me of the battle that had taken place while I slumbered... nothing but 3 little chicks happy to see me. I scanned the room quickly and ran upstairs completely expecting to stumble upon the remains of what had only last night been a cute little chicken sitting in my hand, but again.... nothing. Even our two cats Xander and Venus were quietly sleeping... hmmm! I know their normal behavior when they've brought some unwilling creature into the house. They sit about licking themselves all proud to show me what they caught. Not this morning... they were asleep and absolutely no signs of Chicken Roo. I checked outside... I checked upstairs... I checked downstairs... I checked under all the furniture one more time.... I even opened the sleeper sofa. The house is only so big and if there's no sign of Chicken Roo being abducted, she must still be in the house. I uncovered her sisters hoping their chirping would call out their lost sibling.... Nothing. The cats still have no interest in watching the remaining three which only makes me believe even harder that Roo just escaped. Now my question is this.... How bad will a rotting little chick smell up my house? I dread the thought, but that's the reality of this show! Poor little Roo. Last night she met our Other Roux and gave her a back massage. Today she's M.I.A.