April 1, 2004

Pet of the Week: Dixie Chick

Roosters are supposed to rule the roost, but no one has told Dixie Chick that. The 1-year-old white leghorn hen brings new meaning to domestication at Kitty Monahan’s mini farm in New Almaden.

Dixie’s humble beginnings started as an Oak Grove kindergarten class project where chickens were hatched. When the school year ended last year, Monahan adopted the fluffy chick.

Besides her large chicken coup where the horses look in on her every so often, the house-trained Dixie roams the house. She started laying eggs behind the stereo on a nest of feathers, hiding the perfect warm oval from every one.

“I get an egg a day from her,” Monahan laughs.

Monahan wondered why the hen preferred the new nesting place instead of her roomy covered abode outside. The mystery was solved one day when she turned on the stereo to play classical music and in came Dixie who headed to her nesting spot.

One of the pullet’s favorite things to do is to feed on Munchies out of a glass bowl sitting atop the kitchen counter. There she picks at the cereal mix while her small canine friends, Midget and Finnegan, beg for a treat. Occasionally, she tosses them a morsel to their delight.

Recently, Mon-ahan couldn’t find the soft white feathered chicken.

“I looked all over the house for her, all of her favorite places. She wasn’t outside either,”
Monahan said while petting the hen. “I finally looked up at the rafters in the kitchen and there she was sitting between my other chickens.”

Monahan points to the lofty beams where there are a collection of decorator chickens, three and four times the size of Dixie. Maybe she just needed a bird’s eye view with her friends.
And Dixie has a job, too.

“She entertains the school groups who are on the walking tour from the Quicksilver Mining Museum,” Monahan explains. “She dances back and forth on the hitching post for carrots from the children. The children love the show she puts on.”

One day Monahan got in her car and Dixie jumped in, sat on the steering wheel and away they went.
“Look, Dixie’s driving the car,” the neighbors cried out when they saw the pair driving in New Almaden.
Perhaps Dixie has set her sights on ruling the whole neighborhood now.

—By Jeanne C. Lewis

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