Gone for Good/Here to Stay

I am SO sad to say this...but it has now been about 2 weeks since we have seen our precious little kitty, Sugar. I am making the final decision now that she's not coming back. We are going to quit looking and hoping for her return and settle it within our hearts that she's gone for good. I had NO idea how attached I had gotten to her! Never did I think when we got that little kitten that I would fall in love with her like I did but she was just not like most cats. She was super cuddly (which I know a lot of cats are) but what really set her apart was that she would actually SWIM with us! Yes you read that correctly. Cats are supposed to HATE water...but not this one. She would actually climb up the ladder herself and wait for us to pick her up and put her in the water with us! Then after a while we'd put her in the water and let her swim over to the ladder and get out all by herself. We kept her outside at ALL times (that was the agreement with daddy---if we got to have her...she had to stay outside) and even though I hate to say it...a cyote probably got her during the night or something. She was only about 2 1/2 months old...so still very small to try to protect herself out in the country at night.
Okay...and now...on the flip side of things....
Elmo, our chicken, appears to be Here to Stay. As you all probably remember....it just appeared here in our yard one day and actually scared us all at first because she kept getting in the garage and stuff. Well, we ended up learning her "story" which was that a family with small kids had bought her as a baby chick at Easter this year and kept her all this time in a little swimming pool out in their back yard. Finally, though, they'd decided she was just too big and had asked our neighbors if they could drop her off at their house since they have chickens and roosters. They said yes and that is what happened. However, this chicken has never been around other chickens and certainly not roosters...and she wanted none of that. She was used to being around little kids and even being let into the house at times! So...she fled from their house over to our house and that is where she has chosen to stay. We have tried and tried and TRIED to run her off....but to no avail. The other night Sam, our very old and practially crippled dog, was chasing her as usual....but this time actually got ahold of her. He had cornered her in our front porch and after the whole episode...we TOTALLY thought he had killed her. She was bent in half (at the neck) and wasn't moving and he came prouncing out of there with feathers stuck all around his mouth looking mighty proud. And at that moment, we all realized that we had come to kind of like having Elmo around (as he/she has been so thoughtfully named by Grant). So then Brooklyn started to cry because she thought the chicken was dead and then the kids started trying to beat poor old Sam up. I defended him though since actually we had been encouraging him to chase the chicken thinking he'd never catch her and it was good exercise for him...so it really wasn't his fault. Anyway....after playing dead for a few minutes...our chicken came back to life and has been perfectly fine (minus a mouthful of feathers) ever since.
It wasn't a real great trade...the soft, cuddly kitten for a crazy chicken...but it wasn't like we had a choice.
Anyway, just thought I'd share that with ya'll.