My mom is carefully watching my two hens, hunting and pecking in the overgrown garden outside the kitchen window. The scene is a fulfillment of a dream, to see my mom enjoying the hens instead of watching the world she knew completely disappearing on the news. Hens are a happy diversion. She looks with eagerness like a small child in wonder and speaks of memories growing up when she had hens.

I’ve never been a mother or a hen, but I notice the instinct to be a mother hen. Mother and hens are happy today. Me, too. Copper would be pleased. She worked diligently everyday, caring for her friends, and enjoyed the fruit of her labor. It only lasted a few precious hours, however. Rats!