The
Chicken Chihuahua
Some
chihuahuas may consider themselves housedogs or even lapdogs …but not
Louie. He lives with Gransie and Grandpa
on the farm and rolls out of the barn everyday in the garden wagon beside the
egg bucket, chicken scratch, and crumble.
As
the wagon rolls up to the coop, Louie hops down and waits wide-eyed as Gransie
unlocks the door. He herds the hens and
Easter chicks away from the feeders while Gransie fills them. She then moves to the nests to check for eggs. And, often,
Louie whines as Gransie approaches a nest with a hen still sitting in
it.
“Yep,
Louie! She’s hidin’ some surprises under
her skirt this mornin’!” the woman sometimes says as she gently reaches in and
pulls out 2 or 3 large eggs. Gransie
always pats Louie on the head and thanks him for finding those “hidden
treasures.”
With
the eggs safely tucked away, they load
up the water jugs, take them to the house to clean and fill, and Gransie sings,
“Old MacDonald” as the Chihuahua howls along.
They deliver the morning refreshments to the hens, park the wagon for
the next day, and head to the house where Louie always gets a treat for his
hard work.
You
see, Gransie and Louie are a team. They
work together like clockwork. They have
it down to a science. No worries. No problems….…until one day in early
June.
They’d
entered the coop and Gransie was about to lift the water jug when a curl on the
top of her gray head snagged a hidden wasp nest. Louie saw it happen, but what was a little
Chihuahua to do? He ducked for cover
behind a hay bale and watched as Gransie moved faster than even he could say, “Aye,
Chihuahua!”
The
wasps flew like bombers straight down into Gransie’s shirt and attacked her arms, legs, and
everything in between from every direction.
She flew out of the coop screaming and running toward the house with clothes flying
everywhere.
The
coop was silent. The door was tightly
shut. The hens were all huddled in a
corner in terror.
Moments
later, Louie stepped out from hiding and realized he was all alone in the
middle of the pen. There was no way out. He was trying to come up with a plan when a
giant shadow appeared all around him.
Gulping, he looked up to see old Red Rover, the barnyard rooster,
glaring down at him with his one, good eye.
“Er-er-er-er-rrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
he roared. “What ‘errrrr you doin’ in my coop?”
Now,
Louie had heard about this bad boy and had seen him sitting around in the
shadows. He’d been known to cut down
bigger animals than himself, and even Grandpa didn’t turn his back on him. Louie had to be brave. He had to think quickly.
He
had to use…his…”Chi…hua…hua…POWER!” He
screamed it as he shot backwards under Rover’s belly and grabbed his long tail
feathers in his teeth, jerking hard. The
old rooster was caught off guard as he bent over and looked at Louie upside
down through his legs. Louie jumped on
his neck, rolling his head forward and caught
the rooster off balance, sending him into a forward somersault. Red Rover was flat on the ground looking up
when the door to the chicken coop swung open.
“Louie! There you are! I was so scared when I couldn’t find
you!” Gransie squealed and scooped Louie
up in her arms, holding him close. Her
eyes followed Red Rover as he stood and strutted over to a corner of the coop. “Did that old Rooster try to hurt you?”
Louie
growled quietly and barked as he looked over at the rooster. Then, he licked
Gransie’s cheek, and they left the coop. Only the chickens and old Red Rover understood
what the pint-sized Chihuahua had said.
“I’m
no chicken! I’m Chicken Chihuahua!”
