Shelter from the storm

Hail pounded down like machine gun fire during the morning, till it piled in heaps of white bullets.
I heard a scuffling outside and squinted though the cat flap. This is what I saw. All four hens sheltering in the porch, because I'd left the garden gate open.

It's already a problem that the dog can get out through the flap; now we can expect to find the hens getting in
...burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail
Poisoned in the bushes an' blown out on the trail.

Shelter From The Storm