if your name is arliss pigg and you got to this page by googling yourself, and who among you hasn’t googled themselves, you’re probably wondering why you’re here. i heard your name on the local news a few weeks ago and, because it’s like the best name ever, named my rooster after you. i’m being completely honest when I say your name is amazing – it rolls off my tongue like butter and the 2 “s”s and 2 “g”s are like poetry in motion.

if you’ve read this blog before you might be wondering why i have a rooster to name. after all aren’t i the one who got 10 1-week-old hens a few months ago, painstakingly hand raised them and kept 5 lovely hens. that is i, however, apparently the people at the chick sexing plant do not have an error percentage rate of 0% - in this case it was more like 20%. i’m not blaming the employee, perhaps they were having a bad day or they took a phone call in the middle of my order but i really, really did not want a rooster, much less two. that being said, arliss pigg is a keeper – he’s sweet, lets me hold him and cock-a-doodle-dos whenever he sees me, plus he has a great name. the other rotten, no good rooster is a rotten, no good rooster. this week he has taken to pecking the crud out of me whenever i try to deliver him a hearty meal or a nice cold glass of water. he’s got me terrified to go into the damn chicken pen and every time i’m going in i tell dave if he hears me screaming to come help. apparently today he didn’t hear me screaming…had he heard me screaming and had a camera available he would have gotten an amazing shot of me poised in a karate kid position, trying to defend myself from a 5-lb rooster gone amuck. the rotten, no good rooster is going to his new home tomorrow.

the chickens were moved outside last week and are really enjoying their new digs and growing like weeds. i can’t believe just 8 weeks ago they were little chicks in the palm of my hands…my how times flies. their mere existence irks the crap out of wilson and he whiles away many hours a day racing around their cage seemingly looking for a way in. since he never tries to sneak in the door (and usually flies right past it) when i go in i’m pretty sure he realizes those chickens would kick his ass. i think if wilson were ever able to make his way into their cage it would look a lot like when the lilliputians tied up gulliver. it’s really a two for one deal – i get the pleasure of owning chickens and the benefit of their eggs and a worn out wiz…score!!!

the chickens spend their days searching for bugs and worms and rooting in the dirt, which i keep thinking can’t possibly entertain them for too long. i worry that they’ll be bored, directionless chickens with nothing to show for their lives. however, after copious failed searches on the internet for chicken toys or a chicken agility course, i’ve come to the conclusion that either chickens are easily entertained or there’s a huge untapped market out there. earthchicken anyone?

   

 

wed night dave & i had dinner at a vegan restaurant in atlanta, café sunflower, as part of our tour of decadency.  when we go out to eat in nashville i’m usually resigned to a salad and the vegetable of the day or maybe one item on the menu. whenever we get the chance to go to a vegan restaurant it’s such an exciting prospect that my giddiness takes over.  i’m handed a menu and i can order anything on it that i want, it’s all legal – even desserts.  those moments of sheer joy make being a vegan totally worth it (of course there are many other benefits).

last month we got the chance to go to sublime in ft. lauderdale and it was amazing.  i think it was probably the first time in our 15 years of being together that dave & i ordered in a restaurant planning to share each other’s food.  traditionally we don’t overlap on anything, although as he’s eeking closer to vegetarianism we’re starting to experience some commonality.

our meal at café sunflower was delicious. i had the “lasagna” and dave had the “chicken” and they were both incredible!! the only problem was that after pounding down a piece of chocolate cake i felt like crap – i rarely eat sugar and when i do it feels like i’ve been trudging through a field of molasses – but it was so worth it.  if you’re in the atlanta area check out café sunflower…whether you’re a vegan or not!

there’s been a bit of a gap in my chicken growth posts due to unfortunate circumstances (see previous posts) but they definitely have not stopped growing. next week they make the big move to their outdoor coop – i’ll post some pictures of their new digs this weekend. over the past 3 weeks they have morphed into actual chickens and i swear we can actually see them growing right in front of our eyes.  most of them are letting me pet them and a few are letting me hold them. one lovely lady actually sat with me (& astrid) for a while this weekend which prompted me to paint her toenails so i would be able to tell her apart when my friend and i divvy them up next week.

it is also important to note that they are starting to stink quite considerably – this makes me think chickens probably are not appropriate indoor pets. while many people assume when they learn of how many dogs we live with that our house must smell like a barnyard, i can assure you it never has until now (at least the garage). dave, of the sensitive nose dave’s, is not thrilled.

holy cow have my chicks grown fast – i am astounded at how big they've gotten in 1 week. they’re also getting less terrified of me and are actually starting to eat out of my hand…that’s definite progress from last week when they would run in terror every time i opened the door to the room they’re in.

at the rate they’re growing i think i’m going to end up with 10 chickens that could take down foghorn leghorn (fortunately for me i have the gorilla cage to hold them)!!

for those of you who read with horror my hawks suck post, i have an update. first, i now have what i believe in my heart to be a predator resistant “chicken coop” – it actually looks like it could be a home to a family of gorillas. it might be a bit overkill but better that than a chicken homicide site.

the best news is that i am the current caretaker to 10 chicks that are a week old, who are so cute it’s ridiculous. i’m their caretaker until they’re about 6 weeks old, at which point half of them will go to a friend of mine and the other half will be transferred to my gorilla habitat to live out their long, long chicken lives in complete & utter happiness. dave got some great pics of them for you to enjoy! stay tuned for weekly shots of the growing chicks.

  

 

i’m very proud to say my first buddhist retreat is behind me. it was an awesome experience but sitting doing absolutely nothing for 7 hours is hard work, however, not talking or making eye contact proved no problem as i’m a social misfit. the retreat took place in a country home outside nashville that sits on 120 acres which now serves as a spiritual renewal center. we had some time to walk the grounds after lunch – the one downfall being if you went further than 200 feet from the main house you had to don a bright orange flack jacket so some jackass trying to provide wildlife their own spiritual renewal didn’t shoot you. but i digress…

if you meditate at all i highly recommend a long sit. you can work out a lot of crap and go deeper than is possible with a short sit. there is also a remarkably peaceful feeling sitting with other people who are on the same path as you…regardless of how long they’ve been doing it. the fact that i, who am brand new down this path, can have an experience alongside people who have been seriously studying buddhism for years is a beautiful thing. it’s slightly ironic that a day later i’m sitting on a big couch, with the tv on, working on my computer.

on the flip side, reilley didn’t enjoy my retreat as he had to spend the day without me. i’m told by dave (who spent the day cleaning the house…how awesome is that) that reilley kept going to the window looking for me. i admit unabashedly i’m so pathetic that made me happy. is it wrong to express glee that my dog is so maladjusted he gets upset if i’m gone for the day?  sadly, i think so.

dave & i have worked really hard to keep my chickens safe from predators – we went to great lengths to make sure they were safe from the dogs, first and foremost, because we foolishly believed they were the chickens' greatest danger. no fox, coyote, dog, etc could get into the chicken yard – of this i am certain. apparently, probably because we are really city people living in the pseudo-country, it did not occur to us to protect them from air attacks.

in the span of a few days i found 3 of my chickens dead in their yard, seemingly of natural causes. i conducted an exhaustive search of the internet for what virulent strain of disease could be killing my chickens with absolutely no symptoms. then i started to freak out thinking that as virulent as it appeared to be, it could affect my dogs.  dave kept suggesting it was some sort of predator but i just kept insisting that there were no marks, no blood - what the hell type of crazy animal would kill an animal like that and then walk away?

when i walked outside (along with several dogs) that afternoon and saw a huge hawk hightailing it away from my chicken yard i realized i now knew what was killing the chickens…but not before it got my last one. that was definitely one of my angriest moments.  i was angry because i loved those chickens (and i’m not sure i expected to when i first got them) and because i failed to keep them safe. i was now personally responsible for all of them losing their lives.  to top off the matter, probably because the dogs scared the hawk away soon after the kill EVERY time, the damn hawk never even got a meal…so something else died because of that. because i’m a vegan and a buddhist and i wholeheartedly respect the circle of life, i wished the hawk peace and wellness in my meditation practice last night. because i loved my chickens i wished the hawk a safe journey very, very far away from here (possibly to somewhere very hot). i miss their happy little “bawk, bawk” whenever they heard me say “hi chicken ladies”. rip chicken ladies.  (i would be remiss if i didn't also add that apparently dave was right...this time).

the ladiesjust to throw a monkey wrench in our dogs' lives, we also have 3 chickens…rosie, not rosie, & red. they’re actually quite comical and produce some quality eggs (some being the operative word). eggs are not generally accepted in a vegan diet but to me as long as i know the animal is having a quality life (i.e. in my care), i’m okay with it. hence we have chickens. my chickens have gotten soft, though. red is the only one laying but they’re all eating like it’s going out of style. i think the dogs got to them and told them never to do what’s expected of them…it’s their way of keeping it real.