The Crooked Little Hen Saves the Day

To celebrate the release of my book, I’m running some “Memory Lane” posts from my years at Stringtown Rising Farm. I’m choosing some of my personal favorite funny animal stories–if you’ve been around a while, you may remember them, and if you’re new, you may have missed them. This story is about my beloved Crooked Little Hen, so named because she has a cross-beak issue. Despite this disability, the Crooked Little Hen is now my oldest chicken, still kickin’ at five years. She is a survivor, and a very smart peacemaker, as this story shows.

Once upon a time, there was a Crooked Little Hen.

She lived on the porch because she just wanted to. She even roosted there at night.

On nice days, she sat on the porch swing and snacked on cracked corn.

But oh, how she loved dog food! Clatter, clatter, clatter. She learned the sound of dog food tumbling into the dish. The Crooked Little Hen would come running.

But somebody else knew the sound of dog food tumbling into the dish, too.

The Giant Puppy!

And the Giant Puppy said, “Oh, no, Crooked Little Hen, this is my lunch.”

The Crooked Little Hen was so sad because dog food was her most favorite thing in the whole wide world. Even Boomer was sad. He nearly cried. The Giant Puppy wouldn’t share with him, either. There was only so much room at the dish and the Giant Puppy was very giant!

And then the Crooked Little Hen said, “I know! Let me show you how I can…”

“….spill the dish so….”

“….we can all share!”

And they lived happily ever after.

THE END.

You can order Chickens in the Road: An Adventure in Ordinary Splendor now!