There’s a chicken on the loose in the neighborhood lately that people have been trying to catch for weeks. It’s friendly but evasive. Apparently it escaped from someone’s coop. In most places, a free-roaming chicken would be unremarkable, but people here are invested in catching it. I see it on my walks at sunset and am rooting for it. We have coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, and hawks out here. It’s very impressive that it’s still alive. I can’t help but wonder how much it must enjoy its new, wild life in the hills and on the coast, watching the sun rise and set every day. Maybe it’s blissfully unaware of the dangers, maybe it misses the safety of the coop. Only the chicken knows. On a related note, I have a friend who’s a veteran and used to work at Lockheed Martin. He made a big career pivot recently to start an egg-farm operation with his wife and three kids in North Carolina. They have over 100 chickens now, and he says he has never felt happier and freer.