It has officially been one week since Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them hatched into the world. I’m so grateful to everyone who has been reading and buying my 200-page love letter to chickens. I have two events done–my launch at Powells and another at the Mill Valley library–and am about to leave for the East Coast leg of my tour.

I need to start recording the questions people ask me in the Q&A because I have gotten some really good ones. There are two I keep thinking about. The first was from a man at my launch who asked whether I thought chickens had souls. At first I said no. I don’t really know if any of us do, not exactly and despite all the thought I’ve given to losing chickens, I haven’t thought much about this side of things. But then I thought about my hen Dolly who we finally had to euthanize after a long illness.

It’s been two and a half years since I lost her (more time than she was with me) and I still think about her all the time. I still miss her all the time. What I realized I believed, as I was answering this man’s question, is that I do think that some animals touch us in a deep way and that they live on in us every time we remember them. That they burrow into us and what is a soul if not a tangible reminder of our presence on Earth?

It’s a big question for an open Q&A after a reading from a book about chickens! Much better than the standard writer questions like “What time of day do you like to write?” or “Do you work at home or in coffee shops?”

The other question was from a girl who appeared to be about middle school aged. (If anyone wants to bring their chicken-curious children to my book events they are INCREDIBLY welcome.) I’d just said something about how chickens were smarter than people gave them credit for and she asked whether there were any animals who weren’t smart. She mentioned that she had a cat and that sometimes people didn’t think cats had much going on because they seemed lazy but she didn’t believe that was true. I agreed with her.

First and foremost, I think that cats like chickens like dogs like every other animal on the planet is incredibly good at being a cat or a chicken or a dog etc. I couldn’t do what they do half as well! So many of our studies on animal intelligence like to take things humans do well and test animals on them. It seems more recent that researchers are taking animals on their own terms. I don’t think there are many occasions where people have really studied one species or spent time with a couple individual animals and not been surprised by what these animals could do. We just haven’t been looking closely.

I don’t have much of a larger point to all this other than to say that these events and talking to readers has been an absolute joy so far. Being on the road and away from home for long stretches at a time is a little daunting but interactions like this make it so worth it. There are many more events to come and I hope you’ll consider coming and asking your big questions too.