Chapter 7 - Lucky Dog Dollars The deviant Dr. Doolittle theme carried over into one of the yards a few houses down, where several chickens supplied eggs to their Earth Mother guardian and anyone not reporting her to animal control. However, so as not to attract attention (including of the snake) they were kept behind bars and had never enjoyed the affections of a rooster as far as I knew. To the left, in the other corner of Georgia’s yard, a live oak at least as old as the house effectively blotted out sky and earth, its obese trunk a tangle of woody cat’s claw vines that quietly strangled their host while splashing its canopy with exuberant dollops of yellow, as if only under duress had the tree discovered its own ability to flower. Listen to excerpt read by author. Back