I step past her, and she jumps up and scratches me with her feet. This time, it hurts.

I yell again and dash out of the coop, barely shutting the door before she gets out. My ankles sting and itch where she scratched me. So much for thinking chickens were cute! I put down the basket of eggs and inspect my ankles. The scratches are little, but they sting. I’m probably going to get some kind of chicken-claw disease. I rinse the cuts at the spigot at the barn and then go back to find the egg basket. I only manage to gather five, which I put in Ben and Gil’s refrigerator in the carton Mr. Townsend left.

Next up is Lucy the pig, who also has her own shelter and pen farther down the hill. I prepare her feed and some water and carry the buckets down to her. Feeding Lucy is tricky because I have to heave the bucket over her fence railing and put it on a hook on the other side. Mr. Townsend said it’s not safe to go into her pen because she’s about as friendly as his sister-in-law and also doesn’t like kids. “They’re both miserable beings,” he said. “Besides, who wants to step in that?” He pointed to the stinky mud Lucy seems to love.

I think every place here is pretty stinky, just in varying degrees. But it’s true that this particular section is the worst. I climb up on the first rung of the fence and heave the feed bucket over. I don’t hear Lucy approaching as I settle the handle onto the hook. Suddenly she’s racing straight at me as if she hasn’t been fed in a week. I startle and get my hand caught between the railing and the handle just as Lucy slams her body against the bucket. I yell out as pain surges up my arm, but I manage to pull my hand back. Then I fall backward off the fence and onto my butt in the dirt.

Lucy goes wild, eating the food and making snorting noises.

I get up and brush myself off. “Rude!” I yell, but Lucy could care less. She swishes her little curly tail in circles and keeps eating in a satisfied way. One whole side of her is covered with caked-on mud. I wonder how it will come off. Maybe she rolls around and gives herself a dust bath, like Rainbow does sometimes. I hope so, because I sure don’t want to have to brush it off her, especially not for minimum wage!