Touché, Rooster

Roosters may be smarter than I have given them credit for. I have had very few encounters with them in my life, so I haven’t given it much thought. I figured they were small-brained, boisterous animals that loved waking up early. Not anymore.

I woke up two nights ago to a startling call from a nearby rooster; nothing out of the ordinary for Africa. What seemed strange, however, was the proximity of the sound. I woke up expecting to find the rooster at the foot of my bed. (Actually, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had found a way inside my mosquito net.) I thought this was a 4 ft tall mutant rooster who was walking down the main street waking up the neighborhood at 4:25am. I pictured Foghorn Leghorn dancing down the street screaming at everything he sees. Anyway, every 3 minutes I would turn over, change the placement of my ear buds, turn up the volume and hope to fall asleep. No dice. So I got up around 5:30am.

I ate breakfast and kinda forgot about the incident…until I walked outside. I looked out into the back yard area and saw the culprit sitting directly underneath my window. This little biological alarm clock was no more than 9 ft away from my face. I swear the little guy looked me in the eye (while I was taking his picture), turned around, and sauntered off, satisfied that he had done his job. Do roosters have a sense of humor?

I had to overexpose the shot to see the rooster in the corner. Also note the knowing stare...

So before I went to bed last night, I looked for a long branch or broom that I could stick in his eye when he came around the next morning. The only thing I could find was a closet hanger. Good enough.

So, sure enough, at 4:15am this morning he started his little schtick. I got up, opened the window, and waved the hanger in his general direction like a mad woman. He cocked his eye, strutted around for a second and walked off into the night. I was satisfied. Well, all he did was walk about 6 ft to the left where I could no longer see him from the window and just kept on doing his rooster thing. 

Rooster - 2  

Me - 0 

Touché, rooster...but I'll be back for round 3.