Rose tells the real life story of two unlikely friends Date: 11/23/2016 WILBRAHAM – Karen E. Rose, a town native, never thought she’d be writing books for children until she was inspired by two animals on her farm in southwestern Vermont becoming unlikely friends – a chicken named Pixie and her house cat Fenway.
Rose told Reminder Publications Pixie was the victim of the pecking order.
“In chicken keeping we use it in our own vernacular, but it is a real concept in a henhouse,” she explained. “Pixie was at the bottom of the pecking order and I had gone out one day and they had attacked her ... They will generally attack one at the lower end of the totem pole if they can get them. I caught her right in time and brought her inside and decided she really couldn’t go back out there with them because this behavior was going to continue.”
She said Pixie stayed in a coop in the basement while recovering from minor wounds inflicted from the pecking order. Rose decided to bring Pixie out onto her screened porch where Fenway, her 18-pound cat spends most of his time.
“I had brought Pixie out there thinking she’ll get some fresh air [and] she’ll get to walk around a bit; stretch out, and just as I done that and I was on my way back in I opened the door to come back into the house and Fenway ran onto the screen porch. I thought, ‘Uh oh’ and I stood at the ready; ready to break up some kind of altercation that might happen. And she [Pixie] didn’t flinch and he [Fenway] walked right up to her and sniffed her from her feet to her beak and looked at her like she stunk and sort of walked away. And that was kind of the beginning of this friendship.”
 Rose explained for days she continued to bring Pixie onto the porch with Fenway present.
“In posting this a lot on social media, friends of mine kind of encouraged me,” she added. “I don’t have any background [in writing]. I’m an economics major. I have no degree in English. I’m not a teacher. Friends of mine said, ‘You need to blog about this or write a kid’s book. There’s a great message about accepting differences and friendship.’ At first I thought, ‘They’re absolutely crazy.’ After watching this day after day after day I thought maybe I’ll take a stab at it.”
Rose’s first children’s book, “Pixie & Fenway – Unlikely Friends at Two Mountain Farm,” was published in February 2015 and like her two other books features illustrations by kids. She has published two story books and one educational activity book.
Her second book, published in October 2015, is called, “A Sweet Lemon Arrives at Two Mountain Farm” and is inspired by the true story of a chick at the farm named Lemon who was born without eyes, Rose noted.
She explained the farm ordered chicks from a hatchery in Iowa that came to the farm via the mail – one of which was Lemon.
“I got a face cloth and was trying to wash her eyes only to find out that there really were no eyes,” Rose said. “It’s generally the function of the temperature in the incubator being too hot, which causes deformities like that.”
She added Lemon also spends most of her time on the screen porch and turned two in June.
The third book Rose plans to publish in the near future is about the death of Pixie, who passed away in December 2015.
Although Pixie has passed away, the screen porch continues to serve as a home to various other animals who for one reason or another can’t live with their flock, Rose said.
“We kid very much that our screen porch is some kind of Zen environment,” she added.
For more information about Rose and her books visit www.twomtnfarmbooks.com.
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