BMW and I were walking from our apartment to the gate of our compound to find some lunch when we passed a small boy holding a tiny chicken. I smiled at him, looked at the chicken and said ‘hello’ (to the boy). The child said ‘hello’ back to me and held out his chicken to me. I reached out and it came into my hand readily, looking at me and peep-peeping constantly. The boy talked to BMW and offered to give us the chicken. I was about to refuse but the boy told us that his mother told him to kill it or give it away. I didn’t have the heart to refuse then, so I have become wet nurse to a little yellow chicken. BMW is impressed that I have worked out things already, like that it needs water as well as food (egad!), and that if it is piping loudly it wants something and the only trick is to deduce what it is. I’ve also noticed that if it is pecking constantly at my hand when I lift it but won’t touch the food in its box it needs water. After having a drink it will go into its box and peck at the food.
Does anyone here know what we should feed it? It doesn’t seem to enjoy rice, even moist, cooked rice, but it doesn’t mind moistened bread. Please don’t tell me any brand name products because they won’t be here. Use basic ingredient names like oats, carrot, etc. Tell me how they should be prepared too.
By the way, ‘compound’, huh? Foreigners in China mainly live in an apartment. They are built in groups of buildings of at least eight floors, starting at one as you Americans do and ending at eight. There are often twenty or more buildings in a compound. Around the compound will be a wall and at the gate will be uniformed guards with batons, or truncheons to the English. These guys are scattered around the compound, or estate, and a few times a day you see them marching in a squad or drilling to shouted commands. They are serious in appearance and you wouldn’t want to mess with them. Strangely, people don’t regard them as very effective. Bikes can go missing and people are always warning me to watch out for my things. Oh well! If theft is that bad I would rather live in a compound than somewhere else.
Back to the kid and the chicken. This is the sort of lovely incident that keeps me in China. It’s not rare. I am always getting offers of help from strangers and several times have been given a trinket or other small gift by people I met for a few moments and was not likely to ever see again.