Rise of a Rooster
May 20, 2017
The Adventures of Long Tail (Rise of the Rooster)
Fun Fact: The “Adventures of Long Tail” stories started with a dream my little brother had!
We had just moved to a house where the neighbor had dozens of peacocks and peahens (boys are cocks, girls are hens) that lived in her house. They roosted all over our yard, her yard, the next door junkyard, and almost everywhere. We had chickens. These peacocks were chicken-chasing masters. We were always shooing peacocks away from our henhouse to collect eggs and feed our hens.
My little brother came down one morning telling us his dream about when he was a rooster fighting all the peacocks away so he could have all the hens himself. He ended the battle by snapping a peacock feather in half with his sharp beak and crowing. He said the feather tasted like bacon. (That was probably because I was frying bacon.) He said he was a rooster with a long tail. Instantly, my crazy brain created “Long Tail.”
My Long Tail is a huge yellow Buff Orpington rooster at full boisterous maturity (big, brawny, and full of confidence). He is the top rooster (in the stories, I say “chief” rooster). He rules the chicken yard and likes to crow. He has red feet and giant spurs.
My girls loved my “Long Tail” stories. (I would never have put them on paper without the girls’ encouragement – they seemed too silly!) When they started their chicken flock school project, our best Buff Orpington rooster was instantly named “Long Tail!”
The world of “Long Tail” and his adventures is the house where the first “Long Tail” was hatched, with the big white henhouse and chicken yard we spent hours building.
When Rebeccah colored the illustrations for “Long Tail and Red Hawk,” she used our “Long Tail” as her model.
However, in the DVD books, “Long Tail” is played by “Woody” and “Woody Jr.” – two Barred Rock roosters from the “school project” flock I started as a teenager!
Inspiration comes from many places!
Check out the current “Adventures of Long Tail” stories:
Thanks for reading!
Type at you next time…
~ Nancy Tart
