New Rooster in Town

On Monday, I heard a rooster crowing. As the sound moved around, I knew he was exploring the neighborhood. A few years ago we had a visiting rooster. He roamed from neighborhood to neighborhood. He even made the news on TV and the local newspaper. Eventually the animal control people took it away - or whatever . . .

Rooster crowing isn't as charming as children's books make it seem. For one thing, they don't crow just in the morning and then shut up, the way an alarm clock does. They crow ALL DAY LONG; and the noise penetrates even through closed windows. While it's not as annoying as, say, a police siren, its constancy becomes quite distracting.

When I heard it crowing again yesterday morning, I grabbed my trusty camera and found him in the yard of one of my "back door" neighbors. Apparently the neighbor captured it somehow. There it stood, at the end of a twine leash crowing his cock-a-doodle-do over and over. Unfortunately, the water dish is quite small and . . . empty.

Someone told me about cock-fighting, which is illegal in Florida. Occasionally there are news reports of places, and people who promote it, who are discovered and arrested.

For a stray rooster to be caught and promoted for such a thing is abhorrent to me. In fact, maybe the one in our neighborhood is an escapee. I doubt it, though, because he's so beautiful.

Do you think I should call the animal control people? Talk to my neighbor? Just leave it alone?