Excuses... Denials... Apologies... and a Rooster

In March Dominique had been broody, so I put 6 day-old chicks under her.

She's such a good mama hen, but for various reasons, only one of this bunch survived.  It was an odd little chick... kind of a patchwork of different colors... always hung out on the edges of the bunch... the other hens never seemed to like her very much. I'd feel sorry for her and give her some handfuls of treats.

When it was time to give her a name, my friend Wendy said, "How about Pieceful Thoughts!" Sure! She was kind of a pieced-together looking thing... She was skiddish and probably needed some peaceful thoughts.

Pieceful Thoughts became P.T... which sounded like Petey... And soon became my Sweetie Petey. I thought giving her such a calming name would help her little feelings...

Not mentioned yet, was this little chicken's attitude as she got older. My husband never called her Sweetie Petey, nor did he call her P.T., nor did he call her Pieceful Thoughts.  He called her Aggravating Chicken.  Every evening with a big sigh....  "Where's Aggravating Chicken?"  or "Let's try to get Aggravating Chicken inside first then the rest will come on in by themselves."

EXCUSES:

"Poor thing," I'd say... 

"She's afraid of going in the coop! The hens aren't nice to her," I'd say... 

"She just needs to learn the routine," I'd say while chasing her through the woods trying to herd her back to toward the open door of the coop... 

"She wants to be on top of the coop roof," I'd say as I open the top door for her to go inside a different way than the rest...

DENIALS:

"Sweetie Petey's starting to stand up tall. Maybe she's getting more confidence,"  I'd say trying to find something nice to say about the Aggravating Chicken...

"Her feathers are starting to get really really pretty. Good for her," I'd say wondering when she'd finally begin to lay eggs.

APOLOGIES:

Sorry to say that Pieceful Thoughts aka P.T. aka Sweetie Petey aka (and mostly called) Aggravating Chicken ended up getting scooped up in a catfish net and tossed in the coop more than a time or two by her patience-wearing-thin people.

Sorry to say that delight in her was becoming less and less frequent.

Wendy, I'm so sorry the sweet name didn't stick.

OHHHHH...

The other day my daughter-in-law came over (Did I mention that my grandkids - and their parents - from North Carolina just moved back to NWArkansas?!). She looked out the window at the chickens and said, "You have a rooster now?"

Wait... 

What? 

Oh... dang it... of course... I do... [big sigh heaved...]

It all makes sense now.

I have a rooster.

Meet Pete. 

He's getting long green tail feathers.  He's growing pretty yellow mane feathers.  He's got orange wing feathers. He struts around the edges of the hen's circle.  He likes to fly up to the top of the coop. and enter through the "back door" for the night.  He's a little wary of me (could be due to being scooped up in a catfish net or my chasing him through the woods with a stick and threatening to just leave him out for the night).

He's going to be beautiful.

I love him.