Babette
Our Babette
Fans of Gilmore Girls will recognize this locally famous chicken’s moniker as the first name of the nosy but helpful neighbor of the aforementioned girls who live in the quaint but fictional town of Stars Hollow. Their Babette is played vibrantly and comically by the blonde Sally Struthers, and Our Babette, a sleek black laying hen with iridescent feathers who inhabits The Hostel, absolutely lives up to the television character’s boisterous reputation:
If, by chance, you prop open the door to the Soul Kitchen for an airing out or a sweeping up, Our Babette will boldly march into the Main Dome, presumably in search of stray kitchen scraps. In truth, we think she’s just very social and wants to be part of the party. Somehow, she must know she’s safe in our vegetarian kitchen. However, while she may be safe, she is not sanitary. As Chef Ethan is wont to ask, “Is that sanitary?!” No, Chef, Babette is not sanitary in the kitchen. Unfortunately, she must be shooed away, redirected with the gentlest compassion and concern, which inevitably finds Our Babette in her second-favorite location:
If, by chance, you would like to enjoy your breakfast or lunch plate at the fire pit just outside the Screen Porch, you’d do best to guard your food from sneaky snatchers like Our Babette. She is by no means the only snatcher amongst the flock, but she is by far one of the most successful. Our Babette is brave and bold. She demands attention. And food. And human companionship. What can we say? Our Babette just wants to be where the people are. Or where their food is. Maybe she’s just using us for excess sustenance because goodness knows the forest feeds her, with its plethora of insects and worms and low-growing greens. And lest you think us heartless, we also feed her twice a day a mixed meal of cracked corn and delicious pellets. Our Babette is positively plump, and her myriad-hued midnight feathers shimmer and shine in the sunlight.
And if Our Babette is happy, so are we.
- Court Harler, Harler Literary