Since my sister, Susan, has lived in Germany and most recently, England, she posts on Facebook about her chickens. I never, ever, ever in my wildest dreams thought she would own chickens and write about them so personally on Facebook.
The more I read Susan's posts about her chickens, the more I am remembering about our Dixie chicken. Here is the story about Dixie Chicken.
One year, long ago when Clay was about nine years old, this golden retriever mix, sashayed down our dirt driveway, proudly carrying a chicken in it's mouth. We didn't know this dog. "Oh, my word! Look at that dog! He's got a chicken in it's mouth!"
The family was astonished. Of course, I believed the chicken to be dead; but it wasn't.
Our family rushed to the driveway and the dog dropped the chicken out of his mouth, wagged his tail, and waited to be petted. "Claude", the dog became one of the best dog pets we ever had. And, Dixie, she scampered off toward the back of our house and became one of our most endearing pets.
Dixie Chicken may have out-lived Claude. I don't remember. But, what I do remember is when I drove home from school, all the dogs and yard cats and Dixie Chicken would rush to the front driveway to greet me. Plus, my family, of course. All of them! That's what I call "Mama Love".
Well, we kept Dixie Chicken for quite a few years. Then, my friend, Pamela Faith, said I needed a rooster to be with Dixie. Bad idea. That rooster about killed Dixie. You see, a rooster needs many hens, not just one; so I sent that rooster back.
I didn't like the chicken poop on the back deck and in the yard; but we lived with it. What I did like was the absence of palmetto roaches.
Then, one summer Truett decided we needed a new roof. He placed 2X4's (I might have made that up) on the back deck, in preparation for replacing the roof.
But Mother Nature struck. Some hurricane dumped rain and powerful winds in our area. Truett jumped out of our bed, bare-assed naked, in the wee hours of the early morning and climbed on the roof to cover the familiar blue tarp that protected our roof.
Unfortunately, the next morning, we found Dixie Chicken flattened by 2x4's that had been blown over, right on top of her. Dixie was as dead as a door nail.
We loved that chicken.
PS. We think Claude, the dog was stolen. He was a beautiful dog. One day he was here. One day, he wasn't.
Just remembering Dixie Chicken!
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