The cock of the walk, Jotham ruled the roost

Jotham was bold, even for a rooster.

He felt himself king of the walk and displayed his prowess accordingly in the chicken run and hen house. If there was a tussle with the girls, he stepped right in. If there was fresh grass or scratch to be had, he alerted his ladies straight away with the powerful "Cluck cluck", as if to say "ladies, come and get it" He ruled the roost.

As is often the case with those who are bold, he began to look beyond his own small boundaries. The crosshatched view of yard he saw through chicken-wired horizon loomed large. Beyond the wire rose a grassy hill and, if Jotham perched on the water jug he could see, above that rise lay the largest Chicken house he could have imagined.

It was long and tall and accented with stone pillars that stretched to the sky. The windows were many and varied and covered, it looked inside through the glass, with golden cloth. He looked back at his own small cob webbed window for comparison. His heart sank.

"Surely," thought Jotham, "in that hen house the ladies must be plenty. And are probably glorious is gossamer raiment of gold and silver feathers. The feeders are probably filled with the richest of seeds and the floor strewn with fat grubs and worms for the taking."

Jotham pondered his fate.

He viewed his harem of hens, as few as they were. They were a ragged bunch of grey feathered biddies, scratching and gossiping about the most mundane.

"But," thought he, "Up there must be my fate of glory and wonder"

Thus Jotham set into motion the plan that would inexplicably change his life. When the great beasts came, as they did like clockwork each morning, to lay upon his flock the scatter of seeds and pouring of millet, he would have is chance. These beasts were weak in their devotion to his harem. They would coo and chirp in mock chicken language and fuss over the fat old hens, stealing away their nest bounty. This would be his chance.

And they came; and they cooed; and Jotham took his chance.

He slipped past the lumbering beast, with her apron and suprised look, and dashed with full feathered flight towards the great pillared chicken house upon the hill. The great dogs, often accompanying the beasts, lumbered and howeled after him, but he would not be deterred.

You could not defeat Jotham the great, the rooster of all times.

He made it and the pillars loomed above him.

"What great roosts and vast waterers must exist in this house", though Jotham. And he made his way into the opening of a tall window that reached to the ground and was ajar.

The chicken house did not dissapoint. The floors were the smoothest soil he had ever felt, it would take great skill to scratch up grubs from these. Jotham pumped out his chest for he knew he was the rooster who could do it. Bits of the floor had the softest grass he had ever felt and they were done over in exotic patterns and colors he had only ever seen in his lovely tail when admiring himself in the waterer. The greatest moment was when he found the perfect roost.

He hopped up expecting the usual firm grip of his wooden dowel only to be amazed at the soft give under his powerful rooster claws. The softness was like a thousand willing lady hens, awaiting his rooster duty. Softer than the softest straw of a freshly strawed nest.

He was home. This was the hen house he could rule. This was the throne upon which he could rule a thousand hens and a vast array of lumbering creatures would bring him worms and seeds upon velvet pillows.

Jotham now heard the howling dogs and the tread of the lumbering beast, as they entered his house; his domain. He wondered, puffing up his chest and letting loose the greatest crow he had ever crowed, how they would serve him when they found him thus: regal and reigning over his new domain.

Perhaps he would even let the lumbering beast stroke his brilliant feathers.

Jotham was home. And he was the cock of the walk as he had always known.

I hope you have a day as grand and full of adventure as Jotham. And be like Jotham: look beyond your wired enclosure to greater vistas and make a run for it when you can.