Post #557272 by woofmutt on Fri, Oct 1, 2010 11:56 AM

Speaking of annoying animals and quitting, here's a tale of one young man's triumph over an ornery little rooster.

The Day I Quit Pussyfooting Around The Little Rooster

When I was 12 or so the neighbors across the street went away for a couple weeks and hired me to look after their chickens and goat. (I grew up in a small country town, though the neighbors were across the street beyond the neighbors was miles of farm land.)

The chickens were in a large penned yard which you entered through a big plywood gate that opened inward. There were several dozen chickens and two roosters in the yard. The older rooster was huge, seemed to be about two feet tall, and had huge spurs. The other rooster was young, about the size of a hen, and had pretty good sized spurs.

The older rooster was clearly the boss and strutted about the place like he owned it. Cuz he did. The younger rooster was very keen on being the boss and since he obviously couldn't take on the big rooster he instead took on anyone who came into the chicken yard. When I opened the large plywood gate he'd come barreling across the yard and would jump and attempt to spur me. He'd keep this up until I'd dumped the chicken feed then he became more interested in eating.

Though I could have probably just kicked the little rooster across the yard it never occurred to me to do so and his intense determination and nasty looking spurs really freaked me out. Before entering the yard I'd carefully peek over the large plywood gate and make sure the little rooster was off in a far corner of the yard before opening the gate. I'd then open the gate, run in and drop the food.

Sometimes the little rooster would notice the gate opening and would make it across the yard just as I entered and he'd manage to make an attack.

So one day I checked the yard and not seeing the little rooster I pushed open the big plywood gate. Just as the gate was wide enough to step through I saw the little rooster headed towards me at full speed.

I immediately stepped back out of the yard and pulled the big plywood gate closed. I then looked over the top of the gate and the little rooster was still running to the gate.

I watched the little rooster running towards the big plywood gate and waited til he was about two feet from the gate then pushed the gate open as hard as I could.

I felt a satisfying thud against the gate and I stepped into the yard to the delightful sight of the little rooster rolling like a big ball of white feathers head over spurs away from the gate. He came to a stop, shook himself into order, looked around, and headed off in the opposite direction of the gate. And he never attempted to attack me again.