Animals Aren't Human...

sometimes they are far better.

You may remember in August a new nuisance, a small red mixed breed rooster who loved to crow, moved to our front porch.  We tried several things to get him to move on to a more distant place so crowing could be our back ground noise and not our trumpet to wake us EVERY hour of the night.

Nothing worked so we became more tolerant. Rooster stayed.  We soon found out why he was staying close to us.

There is a bad rooster gang (two roosters) here that likes to strut their stuff...like roosters do.  So as with many species of males there is always a contest, who can fight the best, who can crow the loudest and who can rule the roost.

The Gang has intimidated one rooster so badly, he has chosen a life inside the chicken house with the cats.  Our rooster, kindly named Rooster Cogburn by a friend, keeps surviving.

The Rowdy Roosters actively hunt this guy but unkindness is grouped under normal rooster behavior.

One day Hubby saved Rooster from an all out attack by the rogue pair.  Later I notice they were sneaking their way back toward Rooster and big bad Pit Bull Bonnie gently herded the bad guys toward their territory.  It was a site to behold.  Bonnie has never been trained to herd. Like a good farm dog, she recognized a need to protect and gently removed the problem.

Rooster Cogburn is now blind in one eye thanks to these marauders.  He survives.  One day I rescued him from the Randy Rowdies.  RC had tried to escape the inevitable flogging but because of his sight handicap he ran through the spokes of a work cart and could not untangle himself.  The Rat Bastard rooster was pecking him and trying to spur him. I ran the other rooster off and gently extracted RC from his entangled condition.  He immediately put his head under my arm but was shaking uncontrollably.  Despite days and weeks of sleep disturbances, I cuddled and soothed the rooster thinking this could be his final hour.

Once again he surprised me and once again the dogs have surprised me. RC is their pet rooster.  The first night of his last attack, the dogs took turns.  No one left him alone.  First Ki-Anne and Junior lay on the steps below tail to nose keeping a lookout in each direction.  As the night cooled, they left and Squiggie took the night shift.  He shivered and stayed not a foot away from the rooster who needed him.

When I feed the dogs, I leave a pile of food for RC.  You have to show him the pile because he can't see his food but once found he had not lost the ability to peck.

Tonight I checked on him.  This is what I found.

Lizzy on Rooster Protection Detail

While RC can no longer see to fly up to roost he has chosen our porch as his safe haven.  I try to be grateful for the handy supply of fertilizer.  I show him his food by tapping the porch and saying, Chick, chick.  RC is learning quickly.  Tonight he has watermelon as his dinner treat to celebrate his healing.

Ki-Anne shows for her shift

and Squiggie once again mans the night shift.  I do clean the porch every day.  Rooster Cogburn is quite the prolific pooper.

This morning he crowed!  It doesn't sound as intrusive as it once did. RC will not become dumplings as I had planned a month ago.  There is a surprising softness hidden deep with in me that I try not to show too often.

On the other hand I am wondering if I can fit two Rogue roosters in a stew pot.