The cockerel cacophony of endless crowing was silenced by the blessed flash of the butchers knife; there was a brief flapping of wings and followed by still, quiet, peace!  Ironically, it was death that had restored 'happily ever after' to our daily exsistence.  Dauntless in her mission, my wife dispatched a few of the noisier protagonists as effortlessly as I step on spiders.