When my mom called and said she had a rooster and two chickens for me I was so glad. This city girl is finally adjusting to small town life. I was in the process of planning my first vegetable garden and now I would have fresh eggs. Yes! Best of all the birds were free. Then I had to do the tough thing and build a chicken pen. So off I charged to the yard finding this and that of fencing we had been using for the dogs pen. Several hours later I was hot and sweaty but I had learned how to drive t-post and string fence. Okay, it was a funny looking pen but it had shelter and a cover on top. I was ready. The birds were delivered and deposited and I was out throwing chicken feed like any other country lady. Pretty proud that now I really did have a house with a picket fence in front and a garden and chickens in the back.
So a few weeks pass. I learned how well chickens get out of the pen and how to chase them back. Even had to reinforce the sides and all, but had eggs and a rooster who crowed. I had learned how to make a mud hole on one end of the pen when I went to get eggs. The rooster had spurs and had flown at me a couple of times. But the fence was always what had stopped him. So if I made him mud he would dance around in it and strut around.
Then it happened. I went to my lovely back yard with my lovely garden and my lovely chickens. Oh no the rooster was out. Well I had walked the chickens back to the pen several times so let me just help Mr. Rooster back home too. Or so I thought. He had other ideas. Apparently I had not done a good enough job of feeding him. Or not made a good enough mud hole for him. Or something because here he came flying at me and then I started backing up. But he had made contact and caught me good on the leg. Spurred me well on each side. Blood running down my legs must be something that made him madder because he decided to attack again.
Well I am kicking at him now and trying to get away without turning my back on him. Yelling the rooster is going to die. After another direct hit from the rooster I now had three holes in my leg and one on my arm. Safely inside my home I tended my wounds. My mantra was the rooster is going to die. Well he kept me holed up in the house for several hours. Finally he decided that guarding the doors was a tiring job and it was time to go and attack the lovely garden. So out I come again. But armed with a light blanket. Sure he will attack and all I have to do is throw the blanket on him. Scoop him up and deposit him back in the pen. Easy enough. Well who knew the rooster was on to me. He took off running and flying overhead. No way he was going to get bagged by me. So after looking like the fool running around my yard with a blanket flying around and a rooster trying to see how he can lite on my head, I finally give up.
Now I am looking for neighbors with guns. Yelling the rooster is going to die. Well having no gun toting rooster killing friends close by I again retreated into the house. Knowing that some way or other that rooster was going to die is what thought took me to bed. With a now gimpy leg and hearing crowing first thing in the morning my resolve was even stronger. Ready to start looking for rooster mafia was my next plan. Then my daughter let me know our lives have been saved. A knight in shining amour with his white steed had arrived to help save us from the tyrant rooster. Forgetting what a small town I am in my plight had been passed around and help had arrived. Venturing into my front yard there stood the local animal control guy with my rooster hanging upside down in his hands. I identified the criminal and verified he had lived here. I willing turned him over to the animal jail. Asking if the rooster was going to die, I was dismayed to hear "no". He is off to live with others on a farm out of town. Well I still go around muttering the rooster has to die. So in effigy I had roast chicken for dinner.
