Fuzz and Feathers

Hunt & Peck Parable #20 of 31

“Police Pullet Pandemonium” (The joy of small town newspaper headlines.)

There’s a huge rock at the edge of town with the Lord’s Prayer carved into it. The rock juts right out to the very edge of the road, almost up to the white line. The very tip of the rock is painted white so drivers can see it better and avoid it.

Carved over a century ago the current town mythology has it that the prayer was supposed to put the fear of god into the loggers who passed by it, swearin’ their little hard workin’ hearts out, especially after a few beers at the tavern just down the road.

Off to one side of the rock is a small pull off with picnic tables; that’s where Sheriff Taylor parks to watch the morning commute traffic over his coffee.

Passing the rock almost every day to deliver their goods, there was no reason why Tony, the regular driver for Meg’s ’n’ Peg’s, would clip that rock last week. Perhaps a bit distracted by the clucking from the back. Instead of the usual cargo of eggs for local distribution, on that day he was delivering 60 chickens sold to a farmer a couple towns over. As a result of the impact the back flew open, crates hit the road, and chickens were running around everywhere.

The sheriff quickly blocked the road, lights flashing, and joined Tony in herding the birds through a gate in the white fence and into the front yard of the house across the street.

One of the drivers stopped by the bedlam took the photo that was on the front page of the paper. In the background you can see that the house owner had come out and with arms akimbo was shaking his head at the mayhem let loose on his lawn.

The next day Tony stopped at the pull off to thank the Sheriff once again for being there and saving the day.

You’re very welcome, Tony. We serve, protect, and occasionally, herd. Not drawing any parallels beyond birds and spills, but that event yesterday brought to mind one of my favorite stories. It’ll just take a minute, he said, holding up the rubber duck that had been clipped to the dashboard.

In 1998 when I was in Hawaii for my honeymoon we found two of these rubber ducks just a little apart from each other along the beach. We considered them lucky and now I always keep one here with me, the other is in my wife’s car. It wasn’t until a year later that I read a…