100 Rays Of Son - 44

Rayyan’s Weird Rooster…

 I love cats a lot and had my share of pets when I lived in Bangalore. But when I had to shift to a village home in Byndoor I had to give up my idea of having pet kitties, I will not tell you why once again.

I found a new kind of love for chickens over here. First I had one hen which was bought by my husband for getting some fresh eggs. I used to feed her and gradually started to see that hens are so much smarter then we actually know and they need our love like dogs and cats. Rayyan also took care of them and loved them a lot. But unfortunately, he made me give them a lot of freedom and not confine them to a coop. This led to a lot of trouble for me in the coming 7 years.

Later he started accusing me of taking the eggs which deserved to hatch. Under moral pressure from Rayyan, I decided to allow the hen to breed and it was a success. Though we were not experts we did a good job. We were a happy family watching the chicks hatch one by one until we found one could not walk. 

It was very weak and was struggling to get under its mothers wings. Rayyan picked him up and slowly pushed him under his mother’s wing and it stayed there. After two days the hens decided to take the chicks for a small day chic’s day out trip and sadly the small one could not follow. In the world of the fittest survives it was left behind and again Rayyan was to its rescue carrying him and taking him everywhere the chicks went. It was a funny sight to see the hens peck and something and call the chicks and they would rush at whatever it was. Rayyan would rush with the weak chic so that it would not miss the fun or food either. After a week it was as strong as the others and slowly, because of extra love and care shown to it, it grew to be strongest alpha chick of the brood. 

When the chick was four months old we got to know he was a fine golden colored rooster… he grew up to be one of the finest rooster we have ever seen.

My hens are not the interior types and they are left to roam free in my backyard. If I keep them confined for the fear of dogs they stop eating and get weak. All this happened because of Rayyan’s argument that we cannot take away their freedom for safety. This rooster would go far away from home but would rush back (if he was able to hear) whenever we called him to have his lunch. He would enter my house and bedroom and sit beside Rayyan if he was sleeping waiting for his quota of special food. He was a huge bird but very friendly and you have to believe me that not once had he pooped inside the house. Our area had few other roosters but he set a rule that they should not crow. 

If ever he heard a rooster crow; he would rush there and silence him. Most of the roosters were terrified of him.

Once in a while he would bring a strange hen to hour home and ask me to feed her. It was very funny the way he stood there and watched them eat the food without touching any of it. One day somebody from the neighborhood complained that our rooster had tried to attack their kid. When it came to animals, I never trusted our neighbors. I told them the child must have troubled it, because this bird has been moving in and out of our house never attacking anyone. Few kids from my neighborhood trouble the animals and they must have troubled him and he being a strong big bird, he had defended himself.

Another day one of Rayyan’s friend ran to catch hold of it and when Rayyan turned around he saw the boy was running with the rooster chasing him. It was a funny sight. Few months after that my brother’s son who was visiting us tried pulling its tail and the rooster attacked leaving a gash on his face. My sister in law was very upset and told me to cut and eat the rooster because he had wild behavior but again I told her that he would not have done that if he was left alone. I love my nephew a lot but I could not punish this rooster because I know if I had a tail I would not like it to be pulled for fun.

This is when Rayyan told me not to be blind in my love for the rooster but to be careful. There were few more complaints from the people that the rooster was not safe and I could not believe it. One day I heard screams of a boy and rushed out to see that the rooster was standing there quietly and this boy was shivering in fear. “Hey! Why are you so scared?” I asked him and he said my rooster had attacked him. The rooster stood there innocently pecking the ground for food. “Don’t lie. He is not even bothered about you” I sounded accusing and the boy swore that the rooster had suddenly changed his behavior when he heard my footsteps. I laughed out loud. Imagine a fowl attacking a kid and then pretending as though nothing has happened when I came out.

Rayyan who had taken care of the rooster earlier and who loved it as much as I did, told me not to ignore the complaints. May be the fowl was capable of what they accused it to be doing. He started observing the rooster often, but couldn’t find anything wrong in its behavior. But complaints kept pouring in steadily and finally I got to see that the rooster actually attacked a kid and changed into ‘I am Mr. Innocent’ when he saw me. Amazing. He was a mild bird, sitting on my Rayyan’s bed, never pooping inside the house and moving out of way if Farheena was walking (believe me, he really did that) and to think he attacked kids behind my back was very tough on me.

After some lecture from Rayyan, I pleaded guilty and said sorry to anyone who was hurt. I knew this would not last and I had to give up the rooster because if I confined him he would not survive. He could fly quite high and so no walls were boundaries for him. Finally as a last straw my neighbor’s kid was attacked quite badly with bit of wounds to show and they were very angry. I tried defending this rooster, but Rayyan put some sense into me.

So with a heavy heart I gave him to a woman who raised fowls for living. She was the wife of the same auto driver who took the fish to be left in sea. Rayyan was very sad to say goodbye to the rooster, but he told me, that we cannot trouble others and put their children at risk. We fed him lot of his favorite food which was slightly fried sardines. We hugged and petted him for a while and I was again about to change my mind. Rayyan loved the bird, but he was not blind like me, so I said goodbye to the bird. It was something like Bollywood bidai.

The lady who took him said, he kept brooding and never ate food which she gave him. When she left him free he would climb up trees and never come down. She was having tough time with him. I again pleaded with her to take care of him for few more days until I could find solution for him and paid her handsomely for the help. The last I heard she had sold him to some unknown person for a hefty sum. She kept denying she sold him and said he still lived on the trees wildly.

We all think of him very often and miss him a lot. I go through the guilt of hanging on to him for sometime even after seeing he attacked a kid. It was very tough giving him away but there comes a time in our lives where our minds have to rule our heart. This was one of such moment where my heart overtook my mind but thankfully Rayyan was there to guide me. I am sure if he had made fuss that I am giving away the chic he saved and cried a bit, I would have created a lot of chaos and someone would have actually killed it.

When we talk about pet chicks no one understands that they are actually our pet animals who come over to be petted like dogs and cats and do not mind us touching or caressing them. They also understand what is being said to them. They jump around happily when they see us. They have their own attitudes and personalities. People breed them just for flesh and eggs and never try to bond with them… Wish they knew what they are missing.