This is a true story, it just happened this morning as my staff & I were gathering in the parking lot at my office. We were casually having coffee and shooting the breeze outside the office building before the 7:00 AM Wednesday Staff Meeting it was about 10 minutes to 7 when the Division President joined us and began talking to one of my Technicians when they both noticed a chicken wandering around my Coordinator's truck, they started laughing and yelling over to Jim that it looked like a chicken may have fallen in love with his truck. Well Jim's facial expression went from a bland same stuff different day look to one of shock & horror, "that's my chicken!" he yelled and ran over to the truck as howls of laughter erupted from all of us. He was babbling "what the ****, how the hell did Paco (chicken's name) get here, what, did he ride all the way in the bed or undercarriage of the truck? I can't believe he could of handled it or held on through 15 miles on the Interstate (I-75)!
Well, clever comments were coming at him rapid fire but the only one he responded to was "when did you decide you wanted or needed a chicken Jim?" He said the bird adopted him and his wife a few months back and they had no idea where he came from but they had been hearing a rooster's cockle at sunrise get closer and closer for a couple weeks before they started seeing him in the backyard last October, apparently the chicken is cool with his accomadations there as he has never left.
As Jim was sizing up the situation after a couple futile attempts at recapturing Paco he seemed resolved to just let him stay around the office property which is surrounded by trees and is a good fifty yards from the busy street. That seemed to be his solution until he spoke with his wife who told him, "you are bringing our chicken back home I hope you know!" Which brought his facial expression back to shock & horror as he contemplated how he was going to accomplish this, all to the supportive laughter and wise guy suggestions from his coworkers.
Jim was rekindled with hope as he remembered (from a cartoon maybe) the old box and stick trap, he went into the warehouse got a cardboard box, a yardstick and some string set it up near the truck sprinkled some sunflower seeds (Paco's favorite) in a trail leading to the box, he put a little pile of seeds directly under the box as Paco was watching intently, safely under the truck. As soon as he moved away the chicken came out and started eating the seeds on the trail but abruptly doing an about face a few inches from the box, people were starting to wonder out loud if Jim had met his match and would Paco keep outsmarting him, the majority of bets were on the chicken.
Well, after the meeting I had to leave for an appointment, I told Jim if he masterminded a plan to get the chicken back in his truck he could leave to take it home and get this situation off of his mind, he thanked me and mumbled what a weird day this had morphed into.
Good news! A happy ending, I just received a call from Jim that he and Nolan (one of our draftsmen) opened the driver and passenger doors to his truck and just started chasing Paco until he (the chicken) jumped into the cab of the truck, Nolan shut the passenger door as Jim jumped into the driver's side with Paco safely inside. They are presently riding home together safe and sound, Jim pleasantly surprised at how well mannered the chicken rides in a vehicle, better than his dog he said. So folks, here we have it, another heartwarming story of a man and his chicken.
I'll bet Longhorn has a few he could tell.
Joe