From Ilya to Ike.

I have a rooster, that I originally thought was a hen. At first she was named Ilya but now he is named Ike. The hysterical thing is that when I first entered “her” in the local fair, the judges didn’t pick up on the fact that my bird was really a rooster, not a hen. He was a very good-looking “hen”, so good-looking in fact that he won first prize. Ilya won, but it was really Ike. Thank goodness “she” didn’t crow as she received her blue ribbon. In fact it was just a few months after the fair that I first heard “her” crow and thought “uh oh”.

My family thinks this is hysterical because not only did we not know “she” was a “he” but the judges didn’t know either. I think judging is an art, not a science, so there is room for “interpretation”. Not everyone is perfect, no matter how long they’ve trained or how many books they’ve read, no one gets everything just right.

We also think it is really funny that maybe we have a cross-dressing chicken. It is just a hysterical thing to think about. As a result of a ton of jokes about a cross-dressing chicken, we now have a crazy tradition with one of our good family friends. We have a stuffed fake chicken, yes a stuffed fake chicken that we dress up and hide in each other’s houses. Sometimes the chicken dressed in goggles and a swimsuit will appear in a big box at camp. I have to admit when I get a big box at camp I immediately hope it is homemade cookies and a little note. Then I look at the return address and slowly, secretly, open the box, because inside is usually a stuffed, full-sized fake chicken dressed in shorts with a little backpack and headlamp. Last Easter, I came home from an egg hunt and went to my room, guess who was there in my bed dressed like an Easter bunny, surrounded by marshmallow peeps. You guessed it, The Chicken. Right now The Chicken is at our friend’s house and we keep trying to imagine where she will turn up. I am guessing under the Christmas tree in a reindeer suit!

I'm glad my family thinks this is perfectly normal.