Celestial Sunday - Part 5

Chicken Chauffeur

So I'm not recommending this at all.  However at the time I thought not much of it at all - other than that it was very cute and clever indeed.

As Celeste used to travel around with me a great deal, she became very comfortable in the car and established a very reliable routine.

I drive around now and see dogs clambering about jumping over passengers, over drivers, out windows - so maybe what Celeste did wasn't altogether, completely inappropriate.  

All of my hens now travel in a carrier - the same kind designed for a cat.  They have a towel in the bottom and a special water cup and food container.  There's a nice photo of my hen Ruby in her carrier when I brought her inside on a hot, Summer night.  The seat belt gets looped through the carrying handle, so they seem quite safe.  

In the Celestial days I didn't have a carrier, so instead Celeste sat on my lap whilst I drove.  She got so used to it that she knew exactly when to sit down and when to stand up.  At the traffic lights she would stand up, start to preen herself and when I got going again, she would sit back down on my thigh and wait until the next stop.  I never had to place my hand on her to keep her still, she just got it.  We can't even get our dogs to behave themselves half as well in the car.  I used to keep a water bottle on the passengers seat and when we were stopped, I would pour water in to my palm and she would have a drink.  

I wouldn't drive with a hen on my lap today but I also know I'll never have another hen who'd be capable of understanding how to behave in the driver's seat.  

Celeste - with the unwanted, newly covered armchair in the background.