Best in Show? The Cats Have Opinions

Part One: Terrapin Reviews Pecking Order

(with commentary from Billie)

This week's pick: Pecking Order (2017) Genre: Documentary (Comedy) Runtime: 1h 28m Rating: 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾 out of 5 paws

"I would like to state, for the record, that I have watched every single frame of this documentary with professional interest. Not because I was entertained. Because I was taking notes."

What Terrapin thought: This may be the single greatest hour and twenty-eight minutes of television ever produced, and Terrapin does not say that lightly. A full-length film about chickens, filmed almost entirely at chicken height, populated by chickens doing chicken things for nearly ninety uninterrupted minutes? Terrapin did not blink. Terrapin did not eat. Terrapin pressed his entire face against the screen during the New Zealand National Poultry Show finale and had to be physically relocated.

Billie watched the entire thing from the top of the bookshelf, which we can only assume was a tactical decision, in case any of it got out.

The club infighting subplot did not register with any cat present. Rivalries over "rosecomb cockerels" mean nothing to a species that has never once compromised on anything.

Best moment: Every single close-up of a chicken.

Most disappointing moment: The chickens are behind glass/screen the entire time. A real missed opportunity, in Terrapin's professional opinion.

Would the cats recommend it? Emphatically yes. Several viewings may be required. Do not schedule anything for the next hour and a half.

Final verdict: 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾 out of 5 — a rare perfect score.

A heartfelt thank-you, courtesy of Mama Kat:

A big thank-you to our friend Paula for the yellow and black wheel cart — a genuinely practical gift that's already making hauling wood and water buckets around the farm a whole lot easier. We appreciate you thinking of us.

Also, it arrived in a box, and that box is gone now, obviously. What we did not anticipate is that the cart itself would also become a source of intense feline interest — Billie has taken to leaping in and out of it from the woodpile, which nobody asked him to do, and Terrapin has decided the wheels count as something to chase. We regret to inform Paula that the cart may end up doing double duty as farm equipment and a very large, very mobile cat bed.

P.S. — We've seen the picture of Paula with a sheep. If she's looking for her next donation idea, we hear those come in all shapes and sizes and we would absolutely accept delivery.

If you'd also like to send a box — sorry, a donation — you can do that at rainbowcfarm.org/donate.