Tadhg has had an ambivalent relationship with our chickens for many months now. They're interesting, alright, but a rooster's crow is an offense worthy of loud caterwauling. Looking up from unsuspecting play to find fowl surrounding you is enough to give a boy nightmares. And being henpecked is as bad as it sounds.
All of this set the stage for what happened a week or so ago. Rundy was pruning our grapevines, and after a busy day of trying to reduce our "flower" beds from a state of jungle frenzy to mere unkemptness I was sitting on the hill near him in the grass with the boys. I scooped up first one hen, then another, to sit in my lap. Pippin was eager to pet the hens (defining petting loosely, as babies do). Even Tadhg with his checkered past with fowl was interested in petting them. The last of the bunch I brought up to sit with us was Marigold, a beautiful Buff Orpington who is the most meek, spineless chicken I've ever met. I'm her only friend in the world. She brings out the vilest, most bestial nature a chicken possesses, and the rest of our flock gangs up on her and harries her mercilessly. Chickens have no respect for the lily-livered of their own kind.
When I first placed her in my lap and Pippin started to reach for her, Tadhg--ever vigilant--said, "No! Peck." I explained that she was a very nice chicken and that she wasn't the pecking sort. I went on to tell the sad story of how she suffers at the brutal hands (beaks? claws? etc.) of the South Street Chicken Gang. He listened wide-eyed, then rejoined, "Ma'gode come inside?"
A soft-hearted solution, yes. But, alas, this Mama's heart isn't that soft.
We let Marigold go and wandered back down the hill to the house. Just then, Tadhg got to witness the flock in bloodthirsty action going after poor, hapless, witless (but sweet!) Marigold.
And what did that boy do but gird up his chicken-fearing loins and start trotting off after them all on his stocky little legs, tremulously--heartbreakingly--calling, "Ma'gode!! Ma'gode!!"
Nothing like a damsel in distress to make a boy a man.
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