Why did the chicken...

Kaitlyn and I walk around our neighborhood almost every day. We see or hear quite a number of animals. Dogs bark at us from behind fences or from the ends of their chains. Stray cats watch us-- warily or imperially. We hear birds chirping and occasionally a rooster crowing. All very normal. The other day, however, we experienced a new one.

We were a few streets away from home. Just as we entered the shade of a couple of close-together houses, a chicken dashed out of a yard ahead of us and paused, clucking. ("Do you hear that, Kaitlyn? That's a chicken!") I slowed down, expecting that it would either... well... cross the road... or else turn back and run away as we got close. Instead, as we came by, the chicken turned and began to run along next to us! I watched it, confused. It was running with its head thrust forward and beak a little open, clucking regularly but quietly. I had no idea what that meant; I have had no reason to study chicken body language in the past. (I can say, though, that chickens who wish to keep their dignity should not run. They look ridiculous.) I didn't know what it would do if I veered toward it. Run away? Or come peck my feet? Being uninterested in the risk of having a chicken attack me, I kept going quite straight and at a regular pace, feeling amused and slightly nervous.

A few yards further down, we came to the end of the shade of those particular houses. As Kaitlyn and I rolled on into the sun, the chicken slowed down, then stopped. Once we were beyond it completely, it turned around and began heading back in the direction of the house it came from. Evidently we weren't worth a trip into the heat of the sun.

I'm not sure whether the chicken was feeling territorial and running us out of town, (DO chickens feel territorial? I mean, I know roosters do, but hens?) or whether it was looking for attention and interested in coming home with us, like a stray puppy in a story. (DO chickens look for attention?) But since then, passing by that yard again, I heard clucking that sounded like multiple chickens. So who knows? Perhaps on some future walk, I'll get to find out!