I have an old neighbor who happens to own a rooster. Traditional pets are dogs and cats and hamsters, even horses, but this elderly lady has taken in a rooster that her son left at her house. To each their own, right? It’s not like my house is in a bustling metropolis filled with skyscrapers and taxi cabs. We’re in a regular neighborhood but it’s still sort of out in the sticks so it’s not terribly shocking that you look over and, hey, there’s a rooster. Why have a rooster for a pet? I don’t know. It’s not a terribly exciting animal. He doesn’t fetch or do tricks or anything like that. He just sort of runs around the yard aimlessly for hours on end. No big whoop. But she apparently likes roosters and has a rooster so there you go.
But leave it to the ignorance of others to ruin such a benign, harmless thing such as owning a damn rooster. For some unknown reason, another neighbor recently formed a vendetta against the rooster and decided that it had to go. So she (the neighbor, mind you, not the rooster’s owner) took it upon herself to put up an ad on this online bulletin board to find a new home for the rooster. The ad is actually pretty admirable. She wants the rooster to be placed on a farm or someplace with ample room to run, which is very sweet, except for that one glaring fact that she has absolutely no right to be doing this. Imagine if someone decided to throw a garage sale to get rid of some old, outdated furniture in the living room. She puts up flyers everywhere and tells people it’ll be Saturday, 9am-4pm – but on the flyer, she puts down YOUR address. Why? Because she didn’t like the color of your couch and thinks it really ought to go. There’s something intensely wrong about that, don’t you think?
So. This nutcase woman puts the ad up and in no time at all had a couple of people respond that they’re interested in this amazing, beautiful rooster…and even more networking on her behalf. Enter the next round of pointless drama: Someone else on Facebook (where the bulletin board resides) sees the ad and recognizes the rooster! Yeah. That’s right. She knows the rooster.
She posted, “Heeyyy…that’s [rooster’s name withheld to protect the identity of said rooster], I know him. He belongs to [elderly neighbor’s name withheld as well]. Why are YOU [crazy woman who doesn’t own the rooster] giving him away???” And the crazy woman said, “Well, he was just loose and running around and some other neighbor [who might or might not exist] said she was afraid of him, blah blah blah and he looked homeless.”
Side note: I did some digging, because this story fascinates me to no end, and it turns out this crazy lady neighbor is just some local busy body — and I’m already skeptical of her story. Why you ask? Well, the rooster (a very lovey-dovey rooster by the way, not the ferocious man-eating beast he’s been made out to be) never leaves the old woman’s yard. Now maybe he escaped one day. I guess that’s in the realm of possibility, but I’ve never seen him outside of the yard and he lives just two doors down from me. Regardless, this random woman sticks her beak in his business and declares herself judge and jury for the fate of a bird that’s not even hers!? I don’t think so. She even had the audacity to go so far as to ask for advice (on the bulletin board) on how to trap a rooster so she could abscond with it and pass it off to someone else…before being called out as a birdnapper that is.
All I have to say is the nerve of this woman! Who does she think she is? Is she anti-rooster? A roosterist? I highly doubt the same thing would happen if she found a dog hanging out in his own yard. You see a dog minding his business in his yard, you don’t just up and immediately try to sell it online. I mean, maybe this particular woman would. But I’m just saying that maybe the type of animal is the reason why she did what she did. Although really, it’s not like having a rooster is that odd around here. We’re in the country — we’re completely surrounded by farms. People own goats instead of lawn mowers, for god’s sake. Seeing poultry should not come as a shock.
Not like the type of animal should matter anyways. The point is that people don’t have the right to give away someone else’s stuff. I think most of us understand this, yet somehow this basic principle of possession has escaped this woman. It’s just another prime example of how selfish and self-centered some people can be. And now there are roosters involved. If roosters are no longer safe, what chance does the world have?
Any resemblance to actual roosters, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Musings from a Tangled Mind 
This is a funny story. It so sad though. Seems most nieghborhoods have their busy body like the roosterist. Where my rental house is there is a man and wife who mind everyone’s business. They have one of those sound amplifying dishes they point at other people’s houses so they can hear what the are talking about. No joke, I’ve seen it. http://www.spybase.com/bio-dish-parabolic-p/biodish-mg.htm
Wow — that’s seriously messed up. And taking it a little far. People should start talking about THEM when they know (or if they THINK) they’re listening. OR start some fake gossip for them to hear. Talk about burying a body right down to all the details only have it be a garden gnome. Oh — or even better! — that someone saw one of those two people stepping out on the other one with someone else! LOL 😀
That last one is a fun one. lol
In my last house my neighbour had a rooster, I quite liked it except that it did have a nasty habit of waking me up early. I never complained about it however!
You know, she must have a “no crow” collar on it (though I can’t see it, he IS kind of fluffy) because he doesn’t crow, or rather, I haven’t heard him.
I halfway wish the Caper would have continued until the Coppers caught the Roosterist mid-caging and threw her in the County Coop. Then all the considerate-thinkers on your country lane could crow about it.
You have a nightmare busybody on your midst, Wendy. Facebook needs to put her on Timeout for two weeks. Long live domesticated roosters who know enough to stay in their kind old lady’s yard and mind their own business.
Ha! That’s funny! The chicken caper! LOL
I do think several people (at least people on that bulletin board page) were quite frustrated with her for doing that. And she certainly didn’t make any friends in the neighborhood.
As for chickens staying where they belong — there’s a farm up the road with 3 wayward (brave?) hens (no rooster that I’ve seen) that do the same thing. They’ll come up to the road (a pretty busy road) and hang out, presumably hunting for worms and bugs, etc, but they never go in the road (no curiosity to cross the road and put that old adage to the test??). They stay where they belong. My grandparents always had chickens (raised them for eggs and such) and learning more about them later on I’ve come to know they’re not stupid animals.
Where I walk Ellie B, there’s one lone chicken on the grounds of an old house across a busy street, and that bird stays in that yard even though it has freedom to roam. I stay on this side because aka Dogamous Pyle is way too interested in said chicken. 🙂
Yeah, and if it’s chased, it might get scared into an area it knows it shouldn’t go. Better to be safe all around. What a good person you are! 🙂
Dogamous Pyle. I love it!!
She lives up to that nickname every damn day, Wendy. 🙂
Love it 🙂 not your crzy roosterist, but your story… I feel for the rooster though, and not to forget, the roosters OWNER…
Can you imagine!? And if the woman had been successful and gotten rid of the rooster, the owner never would’ve known what happened. She would’ve just woken up one day to her pet missing and not known what happened to him. That would’ve been awful. ALTHOUGH…have you ever tried to catch a rooster when it wasn’t closed in?? LOL I think I might’ve paid good money to watch the crazy neighbor do that.
I don’t know how much unmitigated gall that requires, but quite a damned bit.
Indeed. I certainly thought so. And that was the phrase I was looking for when I was writing this entry! I couldn’t think of it.
Oh good !!!
I was gonna make a cheap joke about ‘cocks’, but thought better of it.
😀
Well I’m sorry I have to miss that one! 😀
Wow, do I despise busybodies. I like your analogy of putting somebody’s furniture up for sale without their notice. Sounds like the busybody needs to have some of her possessions offered up, preferably free of charge, to see how she likes it. Maybe you could advertise a Saturday yard sale at her place, starting really, really early, with lots of heirlooms. That’ll bring out the crowds.
I would so like to do that!! Would probably serve her right. 😀
I also live among livestock of all sorts, mostly benign but did have one neighbor’s billy goat that kept escaping to my garden. Would have liked to find it a distant home to save my veggies but knew I didn’t have the right. Bought the neighbor a strong rope to tie it out on, instead. Can one rope s rooster?
I suppose you could tie up a rooster using a clamp on its leg though it would most likely hurt itself trying to get loose and it would definitely leave it vulnerable to predators. Though it certainly wouldn’t be fair in this case since the rooster apparently never leaves his yard.
Inspiring stuff! I’ve just put my neighbour’s music system and television up for sale… 😉
Oh yeah?? How much? I need a new t.v.