So me and my dog Pete live with a chicken named Marma, she's been with us for over 3 months now and she is part of the family. We all go for a walk each morning and she still lets me carry her (probably for fear of the hawks above) until we get to the Oak tree where we sit for some time and she does her psycho attack routine causing havoic on the grassland creatures...a big monster that comes and attacks and rarely leaves anything that lives in her wake. I watch as she grabs one and smashes it to the ground again and again then chews it up and swallows it down practically whole.
But then I also see her as my friend...she is so loving and trusting...I can touch her anywhere...grab her feet and squeeze them and she just looks at me...I kiss her all the time...cause she loves it or at least doesn't complain...and she keeps herself so clean...I want to think she doesn't smell good...but she does...she smells real good and not like cooked chicken but like something fresh and alive. And I know what she wants when she clucks at the door...to come in...or when she squeals cause there is a hawk above or when she click click clicks cause there is a snake in the grass.
And I know the pain of not being able to protect her...like when I looked out the window and the neighbors dog was throwing something in the air and I saw her little orange legs and I freaked and ran down the yard and he dropped her and she was stumbling around like a drunken sailor and my heart was broken and I carried her home and held her in my arms until she was focused again...it took her over a day to get her senses back and it's been weeks now and she still doesn't have all her feathers. I've watched as a hawk came barrelling down from the sky and grabbed at her and as I ran and screamed it dropped her. Yet I learn so much from her...cause even though the dog has attacked her 3x now...I'll go outside and she will be walking right past him...she doesn't hold onto anything...I know that she knows he is capable of killing her...but she still just lives her chicken life and although she is more cautious on our walks...she still wanders pretty far off from me to hunt.
And I feel like a mom feels...like I can't protect her from everything but I want too...and also I want her to have the freedom to be a bird and so I bring her over to "the girls" (the other chickens on the ranch) and put her in with them and she doesn't want to be there and hides under my feet and if I pretend to leave her and go away...she crawls into a tiny place and "the girls" try to get at her and she looks for me and I can't do it and take her out...but she is going to have to go there soon...unless some other great idea comes up she just will be too big for the house soon.
She is so good...she already been on road trips and she's hung out on campus with me. And I know that she is also like my dog...people will see him and say "oh cute dog...what kind is she?" and I will think "he" and say oh she's a mutt :o) That's how people see Marma...she's just a chicken...she looks like every other chicken or like some chickens that look like the kind of chicken she is...but still what they see is a chicken...but she is not just a chicken to me and I know my heart will be broken at some point because the closer I get to her...the more it hurts when I think that something is going to get her...even right now it is in my thoughts because she is outside and Pete is inside so she is vulenerable...but so am I ... we are all that vulerable...it's just not always so obvious and I can't not love her just because I know I will lose...I just can't not love her...it's impossible because I already do...it's too late I'm done for...so we will see how this all plays out...I hadn't imagined we would have gotten this far even...most people told me one chicken would die from loneliness...but she's the one that's been the company...and there is something very unique about a wild animal...something in the energy about them...that is so alive and yet so peaceful at the same time. Like a wild animal is very aware of death and yet at the same time very aware of life.
And so far so good...for all of us chickens here on the Ranch :o)
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