House is a word reserved for a place inhabited by people. Dwellings for animals are called pigsty, barn, stable, coop and usually look like a maximum-security prison: no windows, a cold concrete floor, full of bars and chains.

For hens (fellow beings I have taken care of for a year and a half) I built a wooden house with a porch, a prototype of my own house. It is a traditional carpentry structure; I executed it with equal care, precision and feeling as I would have if I had been building a house for myself.

Few people know that hens can live for as long as twenty years, and even fewer allow them to do so. My birds will watch sunsets sitting on the porch, and will die a natural death.