I want to share a wonderful story. It's a true story of a lucky chicken and her new friends. It's a story of redemption, hope and survival. It's an important story right now.
The story starts with my friend, Sheila, taking her trash to a receptacle near her home on the way to a luncheon with her friend. She was dressed in a white linen dress for the occasion. As Sheila threw in her trash, she heard a noise that she couldn't identify. She alerted her friend, who also didn't know what she was hearing. "But, we're all dressed up and going to a luncheon" pleaded her friend.
Sheila, animal lover that she is, couldn't give up once she heard that faint sound. "I'm going to see what's in there" Trash receptacles in Italy are big and tall and loaded from the top. This one was full. Sheila is maybe 5'3" (160cm). Undeterred, she started taking trash out bag by bag and item by item, determined to find what was making that sound. She had to go to the bottom, her dress ruined by then, only to find a white plastic bag tied at the top with a weak sound coming from it.
She opened it to find a small chicken of indeterminate age with its head lolling off to the side and emitting the pitiful sound. After she got over the shock, she could see that the chicken was dying and her heart went out to the poor creature. Sheila told her friend that she wanted to take it to her house so it could die in the open looking at the sky (and so she could change her clothes).
So, home they went, where Sheila found an old dog crate to put the chicken in to protect it while it died. To her surprise when she came home from the luncheon, Sheila found the chicken standing up on wobbly legs and not dead at all. Unsure what to feed it, Sheila went to the local hardware store and asked. She bought what they recommended and brought it home to see if the chicken would eat. It did. And it ate daily for the next four days looking stronger and healthier each day.
On the fourth day, an amazing thing happened. The chicken, now named Hattie, laid an egg. She has laid an egg every day since, much to Sheila's delight. She moved Hattie's crate into her dogs' enclosure and they've all become fast friends.
Hattie has filled out and grown handsome rust red feathers. She struts around the yard, follows Sheila everywhere, plays with the dogs, bosses everyone and loves her new life.
Like I said, it's a wonderful story.
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| Hattie |
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| Hattie and her friends. |
