Where’s a video camera when you need one?
Just like his namesake, friend and author Jesse James Freeman, this bird has a wicked sense of humor.
So I have this rooster named Jesse. Sometimes he’s a real pain in my backside. Like today, for instance, when he got into the backyard, where I keep my bantam cochin rooster Juggernaut.
Of course, being a rooster, the second he realized he was able to get at the smaller rooster, he went for it.
Juggernaut, who is my baby, gave him a deer in headlights look before puffing up like he was going to fight back. He’s half Jesse’s size, if he’s lucky. That’s about the time I looked out the window and realized one of the roosters was in the wrong spot. (Thank you, puppies, for wiggling through the gate and leaving a gap for the rooster, by the way.)
This is my baby. He follows me around the yard and chatters at me. I’m crazy about this silly rooster.
Not about to let my sweet little cochin get his butt kicked by the bigger roo, I took off out the door waving my hands like a crazy person and yelling at the rooster for all I was worth. Chickens scattered, squawking indignantly.
The sun is out just enough to melt the solid sheet of ice that’s been covering my backyard for the past several days. Of course, the resulting mud is every bit as slick. So as I’m shouting and waving my arms, I’m also mud skating through the yard trying not to land on chickens or my rump.
My husband, much to his credit, didn’t even laugh at me as he came out to open the gate for me to shoo the rooster out. Only by this time, Jesse was freaked out enough that he couldn’t figure out how to get through the gate. He kept flinging himself against the fence when the gate stood open not two feet from him. (I wouldn’t accuse this rooster of being overly bright on a good day.)
And, of course, he’d periodically get sidetracked from running away from me when he’d catch a glimpse of Juggernaut out of the corner of his eye. Then he’d swing wide around me and go try to pick a fight again.
Mind you, I’m still calling this bird names I don’t want my kids to hear and slipping all over the yard. The arm-flapping was partially to corral him, partially to maintain my balance.
A good five minutes after the chase began, Jesse was back where he belonged. Thirty minutes later, he’s still out there saying bad things about me in chicken.
