Sunday August 31 2025
By Sunday, everybody was used to that rooster chicken hanging around ride camp central. Why not, he was getting all kinds of good leftover scraps, and being admired by the humans.
At one of the ride meetings he startled Joe the vet when he jumped up on a little table by him.
Art took this one
A few people tried to catch him, but nobody could. And someone said that if someone caught him, someone might take him home. Maybe it was Hayley who would take him home. Maybe it was the Haflas. Or maybe it was Bentley.
But either way, the chicken socialized and pecked on all weekend.
Late Sunday morning, John Stevens came up to Ridecamp central, and he had his little mini rat terrier kind of dog, Spud, with him. John set him on the ground, and when Spud spied that rooster, he took off like a shot after him. Rooster chicken started running in circles, not all *that* hard, and the little dog was running as fast as it could, spinning his wheels trying to catch that chicken.
Robert the vet was sitting in a chair watching the chicken run circles around him, with the dog chasing for all he was worth, intent on catching this chicken that was twice his size, when the rooster suddenly jumped in Robert’s lap!
Robert jumped up holding the rooster,
who actually seemed quite content in Robert’s arms, while the dog leaped up and came down with a couple of tail feathers in his mouth.
John had a hard time trying to catch his might hunter dog, who was running circles around Robert and the rooster, still hoping to get a bigger mouthful of chicken, while rooster calmly and serenely settled in Robert’s arms and looked down at his would-be assassin.
The rooster caught, he was put into one of Regina’s big dog crates, and the hunt for his new owner commenced. Hayley’s mom Lindsay said “No! We don’t want a rooster! Who came up with that rumor?” Someone else said No, Bentley wasn’t taking a rooster home. Haflas were nowhere to be seen in the rooster conversation. Meanwhile the rooster seemed quite pleased with himself, hanging out in the big dog crate with his own bowl of water and dog food snacks.
Finally Karen B said she’d take the rooster. For real? Yes, and she was ready to pull out, so we toted the dog crate to her trailer, and slipped the rooster and crate in with Peanut for the ride home to Oreana and Bates Creek.
Rooster settled in nicely at Karen’s place. He’s happily crowing away early in the mornings, coming for food when Karen calls “chick chick chick” and ruling the roost, i.e. scaring Sylvester the cat, the Big Game Hunter. Sylvester thought *he* might have a chicken snack and started stalking the rooster, but the rooster made one cockadoodledoo at Sylvester, and the cat ran for cover.
“So meet Sam,” Karen said, “short for Selam. What else ya gonna call a rooster from the Old Selam ride camp.”
He’s the new Bates Crick Mascot!
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