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This song starts out innocently enough, a visit from a friend—Yee-ha! But…if you know the rest of the story eventually you have to wear scratchy pajamas, sleep with a snoring Grandma and kill the old red rooster, chop, chop. Welcome to my world.
We happen to have (had) a very mean rooster. In the yard he attacked the kids on several occasions and one morning decided he would peck at the back of my legs as I was getting into the van. I swung at him with my purse but if you’ve ever met a mean rooster you know the minute you turn around they come after you again. Stinker!
I hatched the blessed creature from an egg, for goodness sake. I turned him twice a day for 21 days and greatly anticipated the day he pecked his way from the shell. (I think my time would have been better spent making an omelet.)
The boys decided they would save me and "the farm" from future rooster attacks. I was doing the dishes and thinking how peaceful and quiet it was when they came running in the kitchen asking for a BIG knife. Hmmmm….dare I ask? "What’s up boys?"
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"We caught the rooster and now we’re going to kill it."
Time to investigate. I headed down to the barn to see the rooster caught in a fishing net held to the ground with fire wood. He did not look happy. "Well guys, what’s the plan?"
After much thought they decided they were going to give it a bonk on the head. I explained that I personally thought it was wrong to kill an animal unless you planned to eat it, and "plucking a chicken" was not on my to-do list today. (Visions of my mom killing chickens and them running around headless came flooding back to me. Not me, no thank you.)
"We’ll kill it and bury it in the woods." I told them that it is a lot harder than you think to kill an animal while looking it in the eye. It’s really very sad to take a life. Thisgot them thinking, I could tell, but they weren’t backing down.
"We’ll just close our eyes while we swing the bat." Thisis not what I was getting at guys.
I pulled the Karma card. "Everything we do in life will eventually come back to us at some point, so if you kill this rooster, someday you might have something sad happen in your life."
They looked a little frightened.
"Well boys, I have to do chores, you do what you think is best but whatever you decide you do it quick and with as little pain as possible."
When I came out of the barn ten minutes later all three looked sick with guilt and the rooster—he looked madder than ever. "We just couldn’t do it, Mom."
Nothing beats a mother’s guilt.
But what do I do with a rooster that has been given a really good reason to attack me and my family? Set him free… just not in the yard where he can come after me. Together we decided the best way is to gently and peacefully "move him off the farm" with a little drive down the road. He might have been born in an incubator but now he’s "born free" (or as my husband calls him, "fox food.") Ah, the circle of life. I would never disrespect any man, woman, chick or child out there. We’re all the same. What goes around comes around, and karma kicks us all in the butt in the end of the day.
Angie Stone
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