Little Stories: Chicken Baptisms

Once upon a time, when I still kept chickens, I was rushing to leave for a meeting.  I hurried to let them out for the day.  The coop was like a miniature barn.  Although they were provided with perches, a number of them always chose to spend the night on the overhead beams.

As I entered the coop, the high flyers sailed off their beam to the floor and ran outside.  I left also and got in my car.  Very shortly afterwards, I began to smell something.  Something that smelled very much like chicken poop.  Take my word for it, it's an unmistakable scent. As I drove, I lifted my foot off the gas pedal and then the other foot to see if I had stepped someplace other than the dance floor, as the saying goes.  Nothing.

An awful thought began to bloom in my mind.  I put my hand on the top of my head. Aaaagh!  Poultry elimination looks as bad as it smells.  And I'm now wearing it.  When I arrived at my meeting, I hastened into the restroom and attempted to remove the evidence (not successfully) of my hasty foray into a coop of excitable birds.  I made apologies in the meeting for any peculiar odors, and of course, had to relate the story which was met with enthusiastic amusement.

The moral of this story, if you need one, is that it's a pretty fine thing to be alive, even when that might include being baptized by a chicken on a warm summer morning and able to laugh about it yourself and with others.