Chicken Chapters
Chitten or Kicken?
A Farm Fable
On the sprawling farm, the fields are a lush green, and the sky seems to stretch on forever. There are cows grazing lazily, pigs rooting in the mud, and goats clambering over rocks. And the chickens. Well, the chickens are always causing mischief.
Roosters and hens waddle around the pasture, and sometimes venture into the nearby woods to scratch for food. They have their own tiny enclosures, but are rarely sitting inside. They prefer to roam free in the open air. The chickens love to explore new places and wreak havoc on the farm, such as stealing food from other animals.
The cats, in particular, fight off crowds of chickens in order to get their daily nutrition. The chickens have been doing this everyday for years, and the cat food never affects them negatively.
One day, there’s a disturbance inside the coop. Chickens cluck loudly in terror and fly around erratically bumping into one another. The farmer rushes over to investigate and finds several chicks chirping for the first time.
There are no signs of foxes, or any other predator bothering the chickens. Everything looks to be in order inside the coop, but the farmer can feel something is off. Suddenly, a muted sound comes from a hatching egg.
The muffled tone catches the attention of the farmer as he leans over to inspect the abnormally large egg. The off-white sphere rocks back and forth in short intervals. Like a tiny engine idling, the sound vibrates the shell.
The farmer scratches his head and squints his eyes before putting his ear up to it. The muted hum becomes louder as cracks begin to form around the egg.
The farmer starts to sweat and looks around at the chickens in confusion. As the shell completely cracks and breaks away, a fluffy kitten emerges with its glimmering eyes wide open.
“MEOW.”
“What in the hell?!” the farmer exclaims in disbelief.
The kitten attempts to imitate a nearby rooster.
“MEOOOOOOW! OOOOOOWW! MEOOOOOW!”
The chickens within the coop get even louder and more unstable. The farmer rubs his eyes, then goes to take another peak at the kitten. But when his eyes open, there is no kitten.
“Huh?” the farmer claws at his head again.
“I must be crazier than an outhouse fly” the farmer whispers to himself.
“MEEEEOOOW” the kitten lets another one free.
The farmer snaps his neck towards the sound and notices the kitten by the door wiggling remaining egg shards off of its coat.
The fur ball had left its birthplace and is now following a line of fresh chicks and their mother while trying to figure out how to do the chicken dance. The kitten stumbles as the other animals on the farm begin gathering around the scene.
The cats of the farm are just as confused as the farmer. They slowly inspect the kitten and try to figure out which feline family it belongs to. None of the cats have had a litter recently.
The farmer is enthralled with amazement and heads to town to bring the news of this mysterious birth. He even brings the kitten with him as proof, but no one believes the tale.
“So is it a chitten or a kicken?” one of the townsfolk asks as she bursts out laughing.
This fills the farmer with more doubts about what he witnessed.
As time passes, the kitten adjusts to life inside the coop. The farmer eventually chalks the whole incident up as a misunderstanding, but the kitten remains a constant source of fascination and amusement to the other animals on the farm.
Every morning, the kitten climbs to the top of the barn to join the roosters and crow its little heart out.
“MEOOOOOOOW!”