Tag: chickens

The Effect of Swimming Ducks on Out-Of-The-Box Roosters

Sigh. This was to be a light-hearted post. But in one of life’s cruel ironies….. Frenis was slaughtered last night. Yes, I know by whom. Yes, we are attempting to resurrect Frenis. But we have not had any luck with the healing kit so far. 😦 So, this will have to stand as Frenis’ obituary…. Frenis – I’m going to really miss you. I was getting quite fond of you, my not-so-little roosck.

Theory: Environment, not genetics, plays the greatest role in determining species orientation.

ducksThere are those who will argue that all that we are is predetermined. That our genes make us. Our genes set the pattern of our days from birth to death. That we can make no move, no action, that has not been etched by millenia of genetic evolution. That we are born what we are and live that path until the very last moment.

Frenis and I say “Rubbish”. We are MORE than mere chemicals. More than simple genetic instructions. We are the result of every action and event that plays about us as we move through our world. In the score of our being we reflect every note once heard. In the tapestry of our life we show each thread left by passing encounters. In the flavor of our choices we signify each cook in our broth. The fault, dear Frenis, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are ducklings.

chickensI was given a ROOSTER. Alright, to be accurate – I was given a sionChicken. Of the male variety. A rooster. Poultry. With thanks to Wikipedia:
I was given the sionChicken food set. The rooster came in a sionChicken transport box. It had a “chicken status” attachment. There was a sionChicken FAQ notecard to answer all my questions about my chicken. Vital questions such as:
Q: My chicken is eating too much??!?!?!!?
A: ONE chicken needs ONE food bowl per week. This is a fact.
Q: How do i feed my chickens?
A: Just put a bowl on the ground.

Or:
Q: I wanted to put my chicken into the inventory, now its dead! Why?
A: You cannot put chickens into inventories, backpacks or pockets.

A Chicken.

Except THAT is genetics. Environment has turned my chicken into a DUCK. Frenis is a duck. QUACK QUACK QUACK. Okay, the stupid bird still crows, but he tries to quack. Sigh. Yes, I admit it. This is all MY fault. It is ALWAYS the mother’s fault, is it not??? Movies show us endless scenes of patients on the therapy couch whining about how their mother did them wrong. Pffft. Fine. I TRIED. I did my BEST. I WARNED Shen that I was not a suitable parent for a chicken. /me lifts my chin defiantly.

4 DucksHow was I to know that unpacking the chicken down by the ducks would change his life forever? What could I, a liberal arts major, specializing in ancient Rome, know from filial imprinting? I thought that Frenis would be happy to be with the other poultry. Convivial companions as it were.

roosckFrenis is a duck. No matter where I place that rooster, he wanders back into the water. He NEVER wanders OUT of the water. (The ducks never leave the water.) He never eats. But he is never hungry. (The ducks don’t eat.) The ducks and Frenis now form a circle. (The ducks used to ignore him.)   Frenis has become a duck. He has overcome the mere matter of his digital genes and followed his environment. The proof is conclusive. The theory holds. Can evolution (or plastic surgery) be far behind????

When I get a dog, I’m not letting it anywhere near the water.

The aviary grows

bill-mallory-and-drakeI love my ducks. You KNOW that I love my ducks. I had to stage a commando raid to bring them out from behind the firewall into the liberated land of McIntyre. When one of the ducks had problems adjusting, immediately I brought the doctor in for consultation. My ducks never cause me any trouble. They are excellent companions, quiet, friendly, supportive, cheerful. They are the upside of pet ownership.

This past week – people have been pushing other pets at me. Now I like animals. I really do. I have 3 cats and a dog in RL plus family members. *grin* So I have a lot of experience in the care and feeding of pets. But I DON’T want to spend my time in SL feeding and cleaning and all that stuff. So when Oura gave me a pug puppy, I started thinking of finding it a better home than with me and Mallory, Drake and Bill. Lucky for me – Darcey wanted a puppy and had room and time to care for the pug. Yay!! Mission accomplished, pet unloaded. Oops – that sounds a tad cold, doesn’t it?

frenisShenlei has been raising chickens. (Hey Shen – I much prefer it when you and I are raising hell. *grin*) There I was, exhausted from Jaymin’s Beyond Blogging conference, still trying to catch up from all the work pushed aside from being a dancing fairy, buried alive in RL with holiday preparations (everything went WONDERFULLY – thank you very much for asking), and Shen gives me a chicken. With the warning: it needs to be unboxed by tomorrow or it dies. Wow. Talk about pressure. Little chicklets are cute, but a grown chicken? Chicken fricassee, chicken paprikash, chicken salad. This chicken requires that I feed it. That I tend to it. It is NOT self-sufficient like the ducks. It needs attention.

So we argued back and forth. Shen claimed the chick didn’t need a lot of attention. freniss-food-dishI said that “lot” is relative. She warned me that if it got hungry, it would send me screaming IMs telling me that it was starving. I need this????? I offered to find it a good home. I protested that I had already raised as many infants as I cared to raise (I love you my darling son, not that you read my blog, thank goodness). Shen pointed out that she’d given me all the food for free, the chick for free, that it wasn’t much trouble AND added that she’d done a favor that I had requested. Oh. And she was beginning to get a bit miffed, I thought. Then she added the coup de grace.

frenis-makes-himself-at-homeThis wasn’t just a chicken. It was a male chicken. That is, it was a ROOSTER, also known as a. (family blog) Well. Now is the time to stop reading if you are easily offended. I mean it. You have been warned. All I can say in self-defense is that I was very very very tired. Somewhat punchy. What – you are still reading? Go away now. You can stop.

So, I accepted the rooster. After all, it was free and male. Males are hard to find in SL, we all know that. So meet my new pet – Frenis. *grin* And just as you would expect, Frenis is nothing but trouble!!!! He continues to walk into the water to be with the ducks. making-friendsI have SPOKEN FIRMLY with Mallory about this, and she just smiles a little inscrutable duck smile. Three times now I have had to go and rescue Frenis from the water. Finally last night I built walls. They are invisible and fairly low so they shouldn’t bother the rest of us, but it does seem to keep Frenis out of the water. He is incredibly noisy. I used to be able to hangout with the ducks, and listen to the water and wind (and the sound of my neighbor’s horse first-sign-of-troubles-to-comeneighing in the far distance). Now – non-stop rooster sounds. I have to keep a food dish handy for him. So there are ants and other bugs near my beach blankets. Sigh. But I have to admit – sometimes the little guy is amusing. So we shall see what happens. Frenis gets too annoying – he’s a goner. But if he stays on dry land and behaves, well, this may work out. Frenis may prove to be worth keeping.