Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Home and Religion
The Child and the Chicken

The Child and the Chicken

Last updated on: October 29, 2023 at 7:20 pm by Mary Pezzulo

0 Comments

The Child and the Chicken 2023-10-29T19:20:25-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There was a chicken wandering the block.

The first people to see her were Jimmy and his boy. The boy ran into my yard with Jimmy in tow when I wasn’t there a few days ago, and Adrienne heard them talking about seeing a chicken. I thought Jimmy’s boy was just playing a game.

Yesterday night was Beggar’s Night. As I handed out lollypops to a gaggle of zombies, I head one of them say “This is where we saw the chicken!” but I thought they’d just seen another child in a chicken costume.

Early this afternoon, Adrienne came running down the stairs when I thought she’d been sleeping in. “There’s a chicken on the neighbor’s porch!” she exclaimed.

Her bedroom is in the front of the house, facing the street; she’d taken a photograph with her phone out the window. I couldn’t find my glasses, so I stared at the photo instead of going to stare at the actual bird. There was, indeed, a plump brown and grey chicken standing on the porch of our neighbors’ house across the street.

I remembered that several people on the wealthier blocks in LaBelle keep beautiful ducks and hens as pets, and even let them out to free range from time to time. I got in the neighborhood message board on Facebook and wrote out a note. “Did anyone in LaBelle lose a chicken? She’s wandering around [our block] just now.”

One of the first replies was that I should call Animal Control. This is a small town, and I happened to know that Animal Control didn’t answer the phone on weekends. They just had a voice message saying to call 911. I was not, under any circumstances, going to call 911 on a chicken.

I asked Holly the Witch whether I could bring the chicken some unpopped popcorn from my garden. Holly said her chickens liked green vegetables, scrambled eggs, and “any kind of protein scraps.”

“Even chicken?” I balked.

Yes, chickens do even eat chicken.

I found my glasses, and then I got together some leftovers on one of Adrienne’s old plastic lunch plates. When I came out, the chicken was wandering back and forth on the porch across the street, bold as brass. The gentleman who lives there now had come out to have a smoke; he was watching her with more shock than one stray chicken merited.

“Chook chook!” I said. “Chook chook” is what Holly says to call her chickens, but this hen was not impressed.

I tried “here, chick chick chick chick!” but that didn’t work either. The chicken stubbornly refused to cross the road. Finally, I left the plate by the gap in my porch where stray animals sometimes burrow for shelter, and then I went inside.

“I left the food out for Rhonda,” I told Adrienne. “I hope she goes under the porch so the hawk doesn’t get her!”

“Rhonda?”

“Yes, I’m naming the chicken Rhonda Santis.”

Several minutes later, my door popped open.

I jumped up, half expecting to see Rhonda the chicken strut inside demanding more leftovers, but nobody came in. I waited until I was sure the wind had blown the door.

When I went to close it, there was a child standing on the threshold, grinning.

I recognized him as one of the friends of Jimmy’s boy. He is younger than Jimmy’s boy, too young to be very articulate and two young to go to school. He can’t be more than four years old. Earlier in the week I had refereed a fight between the two of them over who got to stuff leaves in a toy back hoe and dump them out in a pile. Before that, the young boy had stolen Adrienne’s football and run off with it, and Jimmy’s boy tackled him to get it back.

“Well, hello there!” I said.

The boy held out a sticky hand with two unwrapped watermelon Sour Patch Kid candies inside.

“Thank you!” I looked beyond him down the street, but there was no grownup in sight. He must have wandered out of his yard just as Rhonda had. The rain was kicking up outside.

I took the candies and pocketed them. “Thank you so much! Have you come to play?”

Among the detritus on my porch was Adrienne’s old plastic tricycle, which Jimmy’s boy likes to borrow sometimes. The new boy sat on it and scooted back and forth. Adrienne came out with some of her old Hot Wheels, and he had a good time loading them with kernels of popcorn and dumping the popcorn off the porch rails. I’m going to have a crop of cornstalks growing out of the sidewalk cracks next summer. I asked him how he’d liked trick-or-treating, and whether he’d been to church today.

When the rain let up, Adrienne pointed out the house that the boy belonged to down the block. I lured him with a handful of leftover Halloween candy, back to his own porch and his mother.

That evening, I found out from the neighborhood message board that there are a gang of feral chickens living behind the old grocery store downtown. It could be that Rhonda isn’t lost, just itinerant. I’ll keep a bird feeder conveniently low for her, in case she comes back. Maybe she will become an honorary pet, like Jeanne the Guardian.

I remembered that Christianity isn’t really about being busy minding others’ business and thinking up things to worry about doing. Christianity is about being yourself, in Christ, and trying to be good to anyone who comes to you.

I realized, yet again, that I’m happy right here where I am.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows an d Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Home and Religion

Previous Post

October 27, 2023

I Want to Say Something About Britney Spears

Next Post

November 1, 2023 A Plea for a Ceasefire

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I think it is important in this context to recognize the teaching power that Humanae ..."

alwayspuzzled

A Word On the 2026 Catholic ..."

"Apparently the magic trick all along was "allow his cultists to feel the pain." Biden's ..."

Mary

A Place Worth Fighting For

"To steal from Lincoln - Trump can screw some of the people all of the ..."

alwayspuzzled

A Place Worth Fighting For

"Good news, everyone! Things are beginning to finally change!"

Alex

America Doesn’t Have To Be The ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many people did Jesus feed with five loaves and two fish?

Select your answer to see how you score.

About 12 About 100 About 5000 men About 7000