JUST when you thought Lake Macquarie’s hamlets might be losing their country charm, there comes along a story like this.
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Sonja Dyke-Clark has become the unwitting and, she hopes, temporary owner, of a Chinese silky chicken which recently wandered into her Wangi Hardware store.
Ms Dyke-Clark was working in the store one recent Sunday afternoon when she heard a commotion in the backyard.
“When I looked out the back I saw my cats were interested – well, one was stalking the chicken but the other cat was frightened of it,” she said.
The chicken took refuge among old boxes, Ms Dyke-Clark reprimanded her cats, and she went back into the store to serve customers.
“I came back inside and was working when I looked up and saw that the chicken had walked in through the back way, right into the shop,” she said.
Realising that her cats would soon be back for Round 2, she set about catching the chicken for its own safety.
“I ended up playing cat and mouse with the chicken, as the two cats watched me, and me telling them ‘No!’, and keeping them out of the chase.”
The elusive chicken proved too fast to catch, but when it ducked into the small office at the back of the shop, Ms Dyke-Clark pounced.
She scooped up the frightened chicken and placed it in a cage.
Ms Dyke-Clark is sure the chicken must have strayed from a nearby backyard, but none of her immediate neighbours is missing a bird.
She sought some advice from a vet at Rathmines, and from locals with experience in these matters.
She’s now confident that she’s feeding and caring for the chicken in the appropriate way. But she’d like to return the bird to its owner.
“I’m told that the chicken needs to go back to its family,” she said.
“It’s too big now to be accepted by a brooding hen, but too little to go in with other chickens.
“If we can’t reunite the chicken with its own family, we’ll need someone to keep it as a pet.”
Ms Dyke-Clark said the Chinese silky owed its survival to its astonishing turn of speed. As one customer observed: “It even looks like the Road Runner.”
She said she’d grown fond of the chicken, which she has dubbed Mary Poppins because of its propensity for popping in, but she’d like to return it to its proper home.
“It’s a lovely little thing, but I can’t keep it with my cats,” she said.
Are you missing a Chinese silky? Or could you provide a suitable home for the adventurous bird? Phone Ms Dyke-Clark at Wangi Hardware on 4975 1437.
