One crisp and sunny February morning, my friend Gabby and I set out on our walk, stepping carefully in the fresh snow that lay on the ground around us. Gabby, being the curious hen that she is, abruptly stopped, turned around, and looked at her footprints.

"One, two, three, four," she said, counting her toe marks. "And you have four toes on each foot too!" she told me excitedly as she checked my footprints.

"I know," I replied absently, not all interested in my footprints.

Gabby turned to her left, "But these footprints have five toes!" she cried in amazement.

Five toes? This sounded interesting! I hurried over. Sure enough, there in the snow were chicken tracks with five toes! I pulled out my spyglass and looked closer. Yes, five toes. I put this information in my brain...rattle, rattle, buzz, whir.

"What kind of chickens has five toes instead of four?" I thought out loud, half to myself.

DING! "I have it," I exclaimed, "you know that new hen that came a couple of days ago, I think her name is Elina. She is a Dorking, and Dorkings are one of the two breeds that have five toes on each foot!"

"Wow," Gabby cried, "let's go talk to Elina right now!"

We hurried to the coop where we found Elina pecking at some grain in the feeder.

"We didn't know how special you are!" Gabby burst out.

"Special?" Elina asked, cocking her head to the side with a puzzled look.

"Yes," I explained, "you are the only chicken in our coop that has five toes on each foot."

Elina looked at her feet with a scowl, "Why do you call that special? At my last home I was nearly pecked to death by the others because my feet were different from theirs."

"Well," Gabby cackled, "at this coop your ten toes are special."

"Yes," I agreed. "Remember, God made everyone special in a special way!"