Why I Need to Carry a Camera Around, Part 89:

[oakenguy]

D and I walked home yesterday by a different route than usual, cutting across the Mass Ave bridge and through the neighborhood. A few blocks from home, we realized we were close to the Chicken House, where several gorgeous roosters and chickens live. We peeked in the yard. No chickens. We peered up at the coop set into the wall. No chickens.

We turned...and there in the street coming towards us, chickens.

"Huh", thought I, "this isn't right."

They got closer, up onto the sidewalk with us, a brown rooster and a white hen, neither of them much larger than a pigeon. Thinking that maybe they just flapped over the fence and don't know how to get back in again, I stepped forward to open the gate for them.

The rooster took this to mean that I was trying to Make Time With His Lady, and attacked my shoe with great sound and fury. Such was the fluttering and commotion, it took a second to realize that I was not actually feeling anything. It was like a pingpong ball rattling against my foot. Still, I backed off.

D and I huddled and came up with a plan while the rooster Eyeballed me as only a rooster, or possibly Danny DeVito, can. She circled, distracting the rooster, while I leaned forward as far as I could and opened the gate a smidgen. My feet said no-no...the gate said yes-yes.

The hen began to go inside. The rooster followed...and then decided to attack my foot anyhow, just on principle. But as I was stoic this time and didn't flinch (er...much), it seemed to decide that I was a tree, and therefore not much of a threat. He went inside, we closed the gate behind them.

Exeunt, to the sound of crowing behind us.

I love this neighborhood.

Comments

[rantarn.livejournal.com]

We've got some wild turkeys menacing the neighborhood. Can you come play pied piper to get rid of them too?

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

Gah! The stupidity of roosters! I used to be in charge of collecting the eggs from my neighbor's farm, and since there'd usually be a couple of us trying to do it, that meant one of us pulling the short straw and being the "rooster distraction". Man, those things are needlessly violent!

But yes, you definitely should carry a camera with you :) You never know what you're going to see in Boston.

[santakiko.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! We frequent a local farm and hang out with their chickens when we can. They used to have this rooster we called "Mr. Fantastic" because he had quite the extensive harem of hens. I think they got rid of him because he was always attacking people, no doubt exactly how you described. But my favorite rooster always does a little shuffling dance when I come to see him. It's a sort of "Don't you think I'm sexy? Huh? Huh?" dance. Too cute.

[tanjalin.livejournal.com]

I loved how you wrote this. You're so witty! *grin*

Kodak Moments

[syreene.livejournal.com]

Lol...oh man...would've loved to have seen a pic of the viscious chicken. :)

Reminds me of when I was taking the back roads home one day (when I lived near Wright Pat Air Force Base) and came across a farm that raised llamas, ostriches and zebras.

I s**t you not.

I was thankful that I was the only car on the road because I did a double take and immediately pulled over to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

Re: Kodak Moments

[gamer-gal.livejournal.com]

Sounds like one of the farms near my father's house. They raise llamas and white kangaroos and other exotics.. very neat to drive by and see a white kangaroo hopping past. I did like you, did the ol' double take the first time I saw it.... I even knew to expect it hehehe.. lol

Re: Kodak Moments

[syreene.livejournal.com]

White kangaroos? Very cool! :)

[gamer-gal.livejournal.com]

Woah...that really happened?? I was reading it and thinking that it has to be a dream of some kind.. lol.. Small town you live in?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Small? It's Cambridge! That was part of the reason I was so intent on getting them back inside the fence--it was a quiet street, but there're still a number of cars going by at 20-25 miles an hour who wouldn't even notice these little Brainiacs until it was too late.

[phobean.livejournal.com]

What neighborhood is this!?

Anyway, I learned through a chicken keeping friend of mine, all you need to do is grab them and toss them over the fence. They'll glide down.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

This is Cambridgeport! Chicken House is at the corner of Sidney and Allston, right next to a little park.

CHICKEN RE-IMPRISONER!

[ah42.livejournal.com]

They were trying to escape the prison! But the got distracted by the hard black earth and started wandering around in circles, as distracted chickens are prone to do.

[paleltlspider.livejournal.com]

I used to live in Bay Village and my apartment had this box window that stuck out. One day I was sitting in the window and staring out at the highway and all the sudden, I jsut looked to my left where I saw the next apartment over and their box window.

And they had a rooster.

In the apartment.

Just hanging out.

I thought I had seen everything when I saw a Rooster in Bay Village.