Unyielding Una

This story is dedicated to Una Hopalong- a one-legged hen that lived across the street in a macnut orchard. She was quite a character, and the lesson that she gave to me is of unyielding bravery, persistence and kindness. She died recently, quietly and in the sun, after taking a long look at the life around her, and finally, unyielding Una yielded her life to this world.

Una was a small unassuming hen. Like many others of her kind she was light brown with a darker somewhat stripy, mottled pattern. She was born and raised in Hawaii, a land surrounded with deep blue ocean waves, as far as the eye can see. In fact, the ocean stretched out so far that it blended into the wide open blue sky. This vastness was loved by many birds, but not Una, for she was a chicken.

Una preferred the shade of the macadamia nut trees. She loved the gentle diffused light and she loved the sound of the warm tropical winds gently rustling the leaves. When the wind picked up and the gently rustle turned into a steady woosh that shook the canopy above her, Una would hop towards the safety of the Lychee Tree, where she would nestled against the base among the safety of it’s many bushy branches. Here, she felt safe, even though she was sometimes pushed away from her favorite spot by the many other chickens living in the orchard.

Una was pushed around often. It may have been because she was a sweet unaggressive hen, but it may have been because she only had one good leg. Here other leg, which was lame, was held up against her body most of the time. For the most part, the lame leg did not hurt, but on cold nights it would ache and Una would tuck it up against the warmth of her feathers. It reminded her often of how it felt to be hurt and maybe that was what kept her from being mean to small orphaned chicks and scruffy straggling teenage chickens.

No one knew how Una had come to be a one legged hopper. It may have been something as mundane as stepping on something sharp in the orchard, or landing wrong when coming down from a tree, but it was probably a fight injury with another hen. Or maybe a dog attack, or maybe she had hurt it when she was a chick. No one knows. But, what everyone knew is that Una put every effort into hopping wherever she wished and she had no qualms about getting into the food line up when the food lady came out to give them their twice daily corn.

Una’s story started long before she came into the attention of humans, so it is hard to say how many chicks she produced, but she was a very determined mother, and let me tell you, raising baby chickens with one leg is not easy! For instance, it is hard to balance over them to keep them warm, and often Una’s best efforts to keep her chicks from freezing resulting in her suffocating them. The delicate balance between warmth and holding her body up was just too hard with one little leg. Poor Una!

But Una tried and tried to raise chicks. She made many nests and diligently sat day and night, day and night, through wind, rain and storm keeping her eggs warm. Her duty as a mother was so important to her that with one nest, Una became covered with ants as she tried to ward them off. This was her nest spot and her eggs, and she was going to stay! But the ants persisted in flooding her feathers, her nostrils, and her eyes and finally she had to abandon nest as the ant stings became so intense that poor Una could not take it.

And still, Una would not yield motherhood to her lame leg. No, she tried again and again. She tried to keep them away from rats, mongooses, cats and pigs and one by one they were taken from her.

One day, when Una had only one single chick left, another hen came and pecked her chick! And pecked it again! Una was furious! She ran over and growled at the hen and did her best to fluff herself out and make herself look as big as possible. The other hen growled back. Una growled again, “leave my chick alone!” and then the hen attacked Una! Una fought and bite and ducked and jumped up and tried to beat the other hen with her wings but the other hen had two strong legs and was able to attack Una with more accuracy, jump higher, and attack stronger, and very quickly Una was losing the fight. But she fought and fought and would not yield to the other hen. And her chick cried and cried as mommy was being beaten. The chick cried so persistently (just like her unyielding mother) that the humans came out to the rescue, and Una was saved from death. Una limped away in pain to nurse her wounds and comfort her chick, and in time she healed and the chick grew to maturity. Una had won that battle.

As Una grew older, her bones grew more tired, and it got harder for her to limp around. But Una still wanted to live and she limped around finding food to eat. Sometimes she would eat along side other misfortunate chicks who had lost or been abandoned by their mothers. Most other hens would peck the chicks away, but not Una. Even with one leg she could have pecked these tinier birds, but she did not.

One day, food lady brought Una a chick. It was cold, tired and hungry, and Una let the chick eat alongside her. When it came time for bed, the chick snuggled under Una, and Una give the chick her warmth. The next morning the chick was very cold, and Una continued to sit and try to warm it. She did not know it was dead.

Another time, Una befriended a lone adolescent chicken. The other chickens ostracized it, but Una kept the poor sick thing company for the short life it had left. You would have thought Una would get sick with all these sick chicks and youngsters by her side, but Una knew that she had cheated death so many times that there was no point chasing the poor things away. Instead she gave them just a little bit of kindness.

Towards the end of her life, Una started to rely on the kindness of the food lady. She knew food lady meant her no harm, as she gave Una and all the other chickens golden corn, and she also saw that food lady was also kind (animals have a way of seeing that). So, Una graciously accepted the new perch that food lady made for her in the lychee tree, and because her bones were so old, she allowed food lady to help her up. On the cold and rainy days, Una sought shelter in the food lady’s garage. Her she would nestle down among newspaper and be thankful of her perfectly functioning downy feathers. Una knew how to be grateful for what she still had.

So finally, one day, Una decided as grateful as she was for her life, she could give no more and she lay her head down on her chest and let herself go. Good-bye Una, you will be missed.