I hated everyone that day. I wanted everyone in the world to just leave me alone and go away. It was a bad day for me, needless to say. I was exhausted and I just wanted to sleep and forget about everything for a while but I still had several hours of chores, helping out the neighbor, to do chores before I could rest.
The wind was blowing hard and it was raining sideways. It was so cold the rain was freezing on what ever it hit. Before I got to the first barn I was soaked to the skin and cold. My hair was wet and hanging in frozen strands that clinked like wind chimes when I moved. My canvas tennis shoes were soaked and my toes hurt. My mood got worse with every painful step I took.
I went to the small barn first to feed the horses that lived in the attached field. That was also where the 'reject' chickens lived. The chickens that for one reason or another couldn't compete with the main flock that stayed around the neighbor's house and at his big barn.
They survived by picking up the grain that dribbled from the horse’s mouths as they ate. At that time a hen had made a nest in the corner and had hatched some chicks a couple days before. The barn consisted of an enclosed feed storage area and a covered 3 sided area that the animals could use as they wished. I fed the horses under the shed and noticed the chicks bumbling around under the horse’s hooves for food.
The hen was leading them into danger in her rush to get something to eat. She was big enough and smart enough to move but the chicks weren't. I decided to toss them an extra handful of grain off to the side. I tried to drop it when the hen was looking but she didn't see me and she kept going to the horses.
I decided to try to herd her to the grain but she thought I was going to hurt her babies and went into panic mode. She called them and started taking them out side into that freezing rain and around the corner. I tossed another handful of grain down but she still didn't see.
I tried to run her back but she just went all the faster and took the chicks out clear around the corner and to the other side of the barn.
I was still mad:
I was still mad, tired, wet and cold, and I thought, "fine you stupid chicken" - go with out food! Let your chicks get all wet and freeze to death. At that moment, I was in so much distress, from being exhausted and having a bad day, and being mad, that I thought to myself, I don't care!
One of the permanent rejects at the small barn was one big and very old red rooster and I consoled myself with the thought that he had at least seen the grain I had thrown down and was enjoying it even if the hen was too stupid to know who her friends were.
It was at about this time that the rooster started making a bunch of noise and hopping up and down flapping his wings like chickens do when they are excited because they found something good to eat. I couldn't believe it! I thought what a stupid idiot he was.
He was wet and cold and hungry and he had food but he was squawking and telling the whole world about it. If he didn't shut up the other chickens would see and come and chase him from the grain pile and he would get nothing.
I was watching that stupid chicken in disgust:
I was watching him in disgust when I noticed he was doing something even more stupid, or so I thought. He was picking the grain up but then he would drop it back into the pile. And all the while he is making noise and jumping up and down. I knew that old rooster was hungry so why wasn't he eating I wondered? This was very strange to me, as I had never seen a chicken play with its food before.
At that moment:
At that moment, I forgot about being mad at the misery in my own life, and watched to see what that crazy bird would do next. He kept picking up the grain and dropping it as I watched. It seemed he never actually swallowed any. I was waiting for the other chickens to see and come running but before they did, here came the hen cautiously leading her chicks around the corner of the barn. The poor little chicks were all wet and miserable so I didn't move because I didn't want to spook them back out into the rain.
As I watched I slowly realized what the rooster was doing. The rooster kept picking up the grain and dropping it and calling. Finally the nervous hen noticed him and saw the grain. She rushed over with her chicks to the feed and when she did the old rooster, who had never swallowed a bite, moved back out of the way to let them eat. He stood there with his wet frozen feathers dropping from the rain and ice and watched over them as they ate.
I stood in awe of that chicken:
I stood in are of that chicken, and suddenly I didn't feel cold and mad at life, anymore, but I felt a warm feeling instead, just knowing, in my soul, that if God could make a chicken with that much love and compassion for others that he must have also placed some loving kind humans into the world also. That was the last time that I ever got mad at the misery in my life, feeling sorry for myself. Now when I get to think the world is a terrible place I just remember that old red rooster and I stand corrected. Since I have long ago, now grown to adult hood, I have never forgotten about my youth’s ‘chicken lesson.’ Only now I use my passion and skills to protect the freedom and "intrinsic value' of pet property rights of all the animals and pet owners, with a major emphasis on ‘Dogs’ and their beloved dog owners rights and freedoms.
This childhood chicken lesson teaches a new style of pet ownership responsibility with respect for an “Animal’s Welfare.” My ‘chicken lesson’ was just one of the many lessons I learned from the pets and animals I came into contact with in my childhood, and one of the many reasons I think it is very important for people, especially children, to be raised with pets and animals.
I thank you for you’re “flapping and calling” and all that you do:
So let me thank you and thank the people, who support our Animals C.L.U.B.- Freedom National Organization Incorporated (Nonprofit) again for all the ‘flapping and calling’ you all do in Canada and the USA, to protect our dogs, cats, pets, and other animals, which all have an “intrinsic value” in their true value on your private property. As a pet owner never just think of your pets and animals that you own and cherish, only as “chattel.” Defend your pets and animals from tyranny, for their "animal welfare" as an extended member of your family.
It really does mean a lot to me and to the pets and animals we so lovingly own and care for, as extended family members of the human (e) family, whom some Animal Rights "perverted" people refer to as a mere worthless mixed pet or stupid ole dog, cat, pet or even a chicken. Life in our family teachings to enable each of us to learn how to properly and lovingly own and care for a dog, or any other pet should not involve intrusive ‘Animal Rights’ agenda legislation or teachings that only lead to the ‘extinction’ of all our liberty to possess responsible common sense ‘pet ownership’ thru the INTRINSIC VALUE in your pet property rights. ‘Animal Rights’ is not that lesson to be learned at all, or right.
I have learned from my pets and animals, just what their definition of an animal’s “intrinsic value” really is. It involves the erosion of our freedom to own our dogs, cats, pets and animals, which rings true of the current political climate in the USA and Canada today. We the People who ‘truly’ own and love our pets and animals are especially struck by the general public’s comments and statements concerning their “Animal Rights” agenda agreement or apathy towards all the various government’s animal laws and legislation that ‘deprive’ every dog and pet owner their freedom to simply own your pets and animals without government "intrusion" or violation of our pets and animal’s “intrinsic value” in ownership without a valid and constitutional "due process" included in the laws and legislation which I have previously written about in other articles.
I Say: "Be there, for every animal owner and defending your pet and animal’s welfare.”
