In this strange and original fable, the earth is populated only by animals who have been placed there by God to guard the Wyrm locked deep within the earth.

Each territory is ruled over by a rooster who keeps the order and marks the passing of each day. But one day, an old and dying rooster gives in to the Wyrm, and begets Cockatrice, who's mission is to lay waste to all living things and release the Wyrm into the cosmos.

Standing against him is Chantaucleer, the rooster. With only the chickens of his Coop, the unassuming animals of his territory, and the self-loathing Mundo Cani Dog as his allies, can he stop the march of Cockatrice. Probably. But at what cost?

You have to give this book a few chapters to get into it. Chauntecleer makes for an interesting protagonist; being a rooster he is, of course, insufferably arrogant, but he is also a leader to his people and in the end, a hero. I can't, as some of the reviewers on the cover have, put it on the same level as Watership Down, but it is an offbeat tale told in an engaging manner.

Released on Friday, October 03, 2003 at Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 2nd Ave S in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA.

I'm going to give this to my wife to release at the Fall Home and Garden Show.