I came home today to a pile of dog crap right behind our house that was not ours or our neighbor's dog's crap (I can tell by the size). It infuriated me because it obviously belonged to one of the plethora of strays that populate this small community. We are, of course, in the midst of working to homestead our property, and the prospect of a yard full of potential chicken killers is not an enticing one.

I am hoping we can achieve some level of effectiveness with an electric fence, but even that may have limited use against the cats that also abound.

The sad thing about the dogs, though, is almost all of them are adoptable strays. We are the dumping ground for the nearby larger city's strays, and we have no humane way to dispose of them. The pound in town won't take them if they know they came from our community; that used to be the option the community exercised. And setting up a shelter in our community isn't possible, as it's extremely cost prohibitive due to the abundance of rules regarding it.

There are several people around town who have solved the stray dog problem with a .22. I hope it doesn't come to that, but we're running short of options.