Ramming It Home

Success at the A&P Show – but, alas, not for our columnist – and the alarmingly quick cycle of life.

- Michele Hewitson

Late on Saturday afternoon, there was a tremendous racket outside the kitchen door. There is often a tremendous racket outside the kitchen door. The chickens congregate there to poop and complain that they are being starved to death, despite having been fed half an hour before. They also knock on the glass with their beaks to get attention.

There was a knock on the door. It didn’t sound like a chicken knock. The racket didn’t sound like chickens, either. It sounded like a rooster. It was crowing. We don’t have a rooster because, for one thing, we don’t want any more chickens and, for another, roosters do terrible things to chickens to produce more chickens. They are fiercely protective of their chickens and, our vet told us, can terrorise the chickens’ people. I am anti roosters and everyone around here knows this. Country people are terrible teases, so I thought that some prankster had placed a rooster outside the kitchen door.