Monday, June 8, 2020

Lilith chases chickens


Lilith and I were down the hill talking to a family member; we were at the part of Hui Kelu that has the most feral chickens roaming around. Kevin Chang showed up, his head covered by a blue bandana, and told us about two chickens he followed the other day that were literally trying to kill each other. "Like chicken fights without the blades," he said. Then Radhika drove up and stopped to offer us a ride. Lilith got incredibly excited, ran in circles. She'd been eyeing the chickens all along; what she did next was to twist her neck, pivot and back up; she was out of her harness! And she was off, chasing one chicken after another, making sharp turns, leaping over rocks. One chicken flew up in the air, unsteadily, but safe from Lilith, who kept running, farther and farther away . . . with Radhika now chasing after her in jeans. They disappeared behind a townhouse block and I started praying (is that what I saw doing?) that she not run to the nearby highway. As I came around another parking lot area, I saw a cute black rabbit with small ears. Later, I found out the rabbit had been lost, too. Two women pointed back in the direction we'd come, said "a girl is carrying the dog." By the time I got to the car, Radhika had Lilith in the backseat. I joined her and we took the one minute drive home. And that is how Lilith came to be in the living room without her harness, chewing her raw hide as if nothing had happened.

3 comments:

Janet said...

great story. "the most feral chickens"--remember Monty Python, "the vicious Chicken of Bristol"?

Karen S. said...

Dogs out of harnesses is a terrifying thing. I will never forget the time our old golden retriever ran across the road, then back into the road, while Dennis tried to grab him... we could hear a car coming... and the fear in Dennis's voice... not a thing I ever want to hear again.
Feral chickens! Not a thing we have in Massachusetts.
That parenthetical thought on prayer is especially good, but I think you meant to say "was" and not "saw"?
Janet needs to get a dog so we can all write about dogs.

susan said...

I can hear his terror from here, yes.
I did change my dyslexical word, thanks.
You can also write about cats...