Not yer dog, not yer chicken!

 The Dove Boys were roofing my Mama's house, a high pitched roof on an ancient house, and rotten infrastructure. They took it piece at a time, consulting with Mama at every turn as to what they were finding and what needed to be done to repair it. She enjoyed have the Father and four sons. Mama told me she and the boys had many a lively conversations about chickens.

One day her big German Shepard, Russ, killed one of Mama's chickens, a regular occurrence when Russ got excited...as when folks are climbing ladders and banging on things. The death of the chicken brought one of the boys down the ladder and report the incident to Mama.

Mama's "mantra" to these killings has always been,  "OH, NO Russ wouldn't kill a chicken, he may play with one in his mouth, but he would never kill one." " Well, Mrs Shields, I saw the dog chase it down and kill it". About that time Daddy's head came over the edge of the roof and said " David, get back up here...it ain't yer dog and it ain't yer chicken." End of story.

My wife uses this one on me when I need to mind my own business.

I was going to add a picture. It's really hard to find pictures of chicken killing dogs on the internet...seems no dog wants to own up to it!