Vancouver –
When he first moved to his urban neighbourhood, Barry Devonald was surprised to be welcomed by a whole flock of new neighbours.
“I thought it was a bit unusual,” Barry admits.
Until it became quite common for Barry to visit the chickens that lived down the street during his daily walks, which led to amusing talks.
“I’ll call it,” Barry says, leaning down to call over a neighbour’s fence, before imitating the bird’s sounds with a laugh.
“Bwak-bwak-bwak. And then (the chicken) says, ‘Bwak-bwak-bwak!’”
Seeing as Barry isn’t actually as fluent in chicken as he seems, we’ll let the bird’s owner introduce us.
“This is Silver Bright,” Thomas Dickau says, cradling the bird while gently stroking her black and white feathers.
“She’s almost nine years old, pretty old for a chicken.”
Thomas and his family first met Silver Bright when she was pretty young, part of a quartet of cluckers they started raising in a cardboard container inside their home.
“We got her just for fun,” …