She came, she clucked, she conquered our New York City backyard

By William Grimes
From New York Times

One day in the dead of winter, I looked out my back window and saw a chicken. It was jet-black with a crimson wattle, and it seemed unaware that it was in New York City. In classic barnyard fashion, it was scratching, pecking and clucking.

How it came to a small backyard in Astoria, Queens, remains a matter of conjecture. The chicken made its first appearance next door, at the home of a multitude of cabdrivers from Bangladesh. My wife, Nancy, and I figured they had bought the chicken and were fattening it for a feast. That hypothesis fell into doubt when the chicken hopped the fence and began pacing the perimeter of our yard with a proprietary air.

Eating it was out of the question. As a restaurant critic and an animal lover, I subscribe to a policy of complete hypocrisy. Serve fish or fowl to me, but don’t ask me to watch the killing. Once I meet it, I don’t want to eat it.

Nancy and I next theorized that the chicken had escaped from a live-poultry market about four blocks away and was on the run. Our hearts went out to the brave little refugee. We had to save it.

Chickens were beginning to sound like the ideal pet. The chicken took to its new surroundings easily. Its main social task was to integrate into the cat society—a group of about five strays we feed.

How would the two species deal with each other?

One morning I looked out the window and saw four cats lined up at their food bowls, and, right in the middle, eating cat food with gusto, was the chicken. Occasionally it would push a cat aside to get a better position. The cats, for their part, regarded the chicken warily. To the extent that it was a bird, it was prey. But big prey. From time to time they would
stalk, press their bodies to the ground, swish their tails and give every sign of going for the kill. Then they would register the chicken’s size and become gripped by second thoughts. A face-saving, halfhearted lunge would follow.

The two sides soon achieved parity. Sometimes, I’d look out back and see a cat chasing the chicken. Ten minutes later I’d see the chicken chasing a cat. I like to think they reached the plane of mutual respect. Perhaps affection.

Although it was nice to know the chicken could eat anything, cat food didn’t seem right. I called my mother. Mom drove to the local feed store in La Porte, Texas, and picked up a
25-pound bag of scratch grains, a blend of milo, corn and oats. She began shipping the grain in installments. The chicken seemed to appreciate the feed.

Our care paid off. One morning, Nancy spied an egg on the patio. At the base of the pine tree, where the chicken slept, was a nest containing four more eggs. They were small, somewhere between ecru and beige, but this was it. The blessed event. After I wrote about the chicken in the New York Times, my mail-bag was bursting with letters offering advice on the proper care and feeding of chickens. Disturbed that she did not have a name, fans wrote with suggestions.

Vivian had a certain sultry appeal; Henrietta seemed cute. But Henny Penny? The media jumped in. National Public Radio quizzed me about the chicken for one of its weekend programs. “My producer wants to know, could you hold the telephone up to the chicken so we can hear it?” the interviewer asked. Unfortunately, I don’t have a 100-foot cord on my telephone. The
Associated Press sent a photographer to capture the chicken’s many moods.
(She had two.)

Then one morning I looked out my kitchen window, and my heart stopped. No chicken—not in my pine tree or the tree next door. Nor was she pecking and scratching in any of the nearby yards. There were no signs of violence, only a single black feather near the back door.
She was definitely missing. But why?

Spring was in the air. Could she be looking for love? Or perhaps she was reacting badly to the burdens of celebrity? Or maybe she was simply looking for a place to lay her eggs in peace.

 

雞之樂趣
她來了，咯咯叫，并征服了我們的紐約市的后院
文/  威廉·格里姆斯
摘自“紐約時報”

一個嚴冬的日子，我從后窗往外看，見到一只雞。它是烏黑色的，帶一塊深紅色的垂肉，似乎沒有意識到自己在紐約市。它像在傳統的谷倉前的院子里那樣抓來抓去，啄來啄去，咯咯地叫著。
它是如何來到昆斯區阿斯多利亞地方的一個小小的后院的呢？這一直都是個不解之謎。這只雞是在鄰居那里初次亮相的，而那是一群孟加拉籍的出租車司機的家。我妻子南希和我猜想是他們買來這只雞并正在把他喂肥以便吃肉的。不過，當它跳過籬笆開始以主人的姿態在我們的院子四周踱步時，這個猜測就站不住腳了。
吃它是不可能的。集美食家和動物愛好者于一身的我，采取的是一種徹頭徹尾的偽君子態度。給我端上雞鴨魚肉吧，但是別讓我觀看宰殺。一旦我看到，我就不想吃了。
南希和我接著懷疑它是從一個大約四棟樓遠的活禽市場跑出來的，而且還在繼續逃命。我們的心為這個小難民而顫抖。我們必須解救它。
這年頭，雞正開始顯得像人們理想的崇物了。
這只雞很容易就適應了新環境。它的主要社會任務就是把自己溶入他身邊的貓的世界—— 一群我們所養的五只左右無家可歸的貓。
一個早晨，我從窗戶向外望去，見到四只貓在它們的食物碗前排著隊，而就在它們中間，吃得津津有味的卻是那只雞！它偶爾會把一只貓推開，以便獲得更好的位置。
貓們則警惕地看著雞。好像這是一只鳥，是獵物。不過是個大的獵物。有時，它們偷偷接近它，身體貼向地面，嗖嗖地擺動著尾巴，現出要去殺戮的一切跡象。然后，他們要衡量一下雞的尺寸，于是，行動就被自己的一轉念給止住了。隨之，就是一陣為省面子的、半心半意的突進動作。
雙方很快就達到了平局。有時，我會向后院看，看見一只貓追趕著那只雞。十分鐘后，我又會看到雞在追貓。我傾向于認為它們已經達到了彼此尊敬的地步。也許是相互吸引的情愛吧？
盡管知道雞什么都能吃令人感覺不錯，但貓食還是顯得不那么合適。我叫了我的媽媽。
媽媽開車到了德克薩斯州拉波特市的飼料商店，買來一袋25磅的谷物，那是由蜀黍、玉米和燕麥混合而成的。她開始以分期付款的方式漸漸地把這種谷物運進來。雞好像很喜歡這飼料。
我們的苦心沒有白費。一天早晨，南希發現庭院里有一個雞蛋。在雞睡覺的松樹底下，有一個窩，那里還有四個蛋。它們很小，淡褐色的，但畢竟是不錯的。一件值得慶幸的事。
我在“紐約時報”上發表了關于這只雞的故事之后，我的信箱就擠滿了建議我如何照顧和喂養好雞的信件。有人因為這雞沒有名字而不安，便寫信建議各種名字：“維維安”顯得有點激烈，“亨利埃塔”聽來很聰明，但是“亨尼·佩尼”呢？
媒體一涌而入。“國家公共電臺”把我的雞安排進了它的一個周末節目里，這下給我出了個難題。“我的制片人想知道這件事，您能不能把電話放到雞前面，讓我們聽一聽它的動靜？”采訪者這樣問我。不幸的是，我沒有一根長達100英尺的電話線。“聯合報社”派了一位攝影師，拍下了雞的很多狀態。（她有兩只雞。）
此后的一個早上，我從廚房窗戶往外看，心一下子停跳了。沒有雞了——沒在我的松樹木里，也沒在鄰居處。也沒在附近的任何一家院子里抓抓啄啄。沒見到什么暴力的跡象，僅僅在后門處有一根黑色雞毛。
她肯定是溜走了。但是為什么呢？
春天來了。難道她在尋找愛情？或者，也許她對于成名不堪其負？或者，也許她只是去尋找一個安靜的下蛋地方吧？