August 12, 2012: Chicken Clothes ?

I think we can all admit that sometime in our past we dressed up our pet cat, or put a spiffy little chapeau on our dog.  Now, there are whole stores that cater to pet clothing. 

I have sweaters for Annie, and a rain coat, and a fleece parka for going to the cabin in the snow, but I draw the line at tiny Harley Davidson leather jackets, sheepskin capes, and wedding dresses.  I mean they are cute as hell, but totally undignified.  My dog would cringe in shame if I tried to suit her up in a leopard skin leotard.

This started me wondering about chickens, and clothing.  Yes I have an active and often useless imagination, that is true, but one has to ask the question...do those of us who love chickens feel the need to put little tiny derby's on them, or tutus? 

Well my friends, it turns out that we are all crazy about our pets, and even pets with benefits ( chickens) do not escape the humiliation of being outfitted by well meaning, and slightly off kilter chicken lovers. Case in point:

The chicken in the lovely blue knit sweater (?) clearly has an mommy or daddy who wants her to be warm, so must live in a cold climate....and have way too much time on the their hands.. and a bunch of blue yarn left over from the last afghan they knitted. 

I almost don't know what to say about the two chickens, one hen and one rooster I think, who have complete ensembles, including shoes for the guy on the right.  What the hell? 

Do these chicken belong to Paris Hilton who dresses her pets to match her outfit?  No self respecting chicken would be found dead in the barnyard in these outfits.  That's a poor choice of words as the other chickens would definitely go berserk seeing these two prancing around the yard and death could ensue.

My point I guess is not so much that we are all nuts, but that if you are going to dress up your chicken, make it functional not just decorative.  A chicken diaper perhaps, or a combo diaper/egg catcher for the lazy hen who can't make it back to the coop to deposit her egg.

Any thoughts on this?