Cartoon penguin highlighted important life lessons

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

Despite living in a relatively urban area, my parents were determined to raise chickens when I was a kid. As such, my daily chores included feeding and caring for the laying hens each morning. What my parents didn’t realize is that as a small child I could get close to the hens without scaring them very much. Of the 20 or so chickens we had, there was one that had colored feathers, so I could easily identify it.

Each morning I carefully approached this one chicken — my chicken — until it became somewhat tame, allowing me to pet and play with it. Of course, I knew the eventual fate of these chickens. When their laying life was over and it came time to dress them, I brought them out of the coop one at a time.

When it came to my chicken, I handed her over just like the others. However, my parents’ expressions turned from concentration to horror as seconds after my chicken had met its end, I explained soberly, “I think I loved that chicken.”

This, of course, has been a family story that continues today despite the fact we no longer raise chickens nor do I tend to love things that aren’t human or specifically classified as pets.

So I find it surprising to feel a real loss at the ending of a fictional character in the funny pages. Twenty-eight years ago, I was introduced to Opus as the mild-mannered penguin wildly out of place in a boarding home in the Midwest in the comic…