Henny and Penny

We often get food from neighbors. Usually it's a steaming plate of dolma (rice and meat wrapped in grape leaves). Occasionally we get a warm plate of raw meat freshly cut off an animal cut up for the Feast of Sacrifice...we quickly bag it up, freeze it and take it to our NP the next time we see him. But the other night was a first for us. A neighbor showed up with two live chickens in her hands. She asked me if I could cut their necks. I quickly assured her I could NOT. She told me to ask another neighbor for help. I told her she should just ask them. She then looked at me blankly. Apparently we miscommunicated. A little later I found out she was trying to give us (one for our family and one for Josh and Bevin upstairs) a gift and I was turning her down. Whoops! So then I stumbled over myself to accept our gift. They were then placed in our yard. A few hours later we hear the poor chickens, Henny and Penny, squawking. A cat!! We have a big Tom cat that lives in the empty house next to us. He smelled dinner. So we chased him away, but not before he got a nip of poor Henny. They then spent the night in a laundry basket.

The next morning we tried to shoo them out of the rain under our porch to figure out what to do with them. But poor Henny was a bit lethargic.

Henny and Penny awaiting their fate...Henny is pretty much giving up at this point. Sorry Henny...we weren't prepared for you!

What to do with a live chicken? Pretty sure it's completely culturally taboo...but we regifted Penny to other neighbors. Carol was the only one brave enough to carry it over to the neighbors!

So long Penny! Nazila was quite happy to have her over for dinner!