The rooster didn’t crow again this morning.

After Carole’s encounter with the bird roosting on top of her car in the garage, he ran into the neighbor’s yard and disappeared. Late in the day I saw him running across the street toward our house followed by a teenage girl carrying a garden hoe. How do you catch a chicken with a garden hoe?

We talked to the girl while the rooster explored the neighborhood. She gave up catching him and went home. An hour later, that rooster strutted down the middle of the street on his way home.

Yesterday morning the neighborhood was quiet. No crowing to welcome the dawn. Distressing! I assumed that someone caught the bird with the hoe. I missed the bird. I prayed for the bird. At least, I comforted myself, it was not a rattler in our garage like the one that confronted our friend in North Carolina. There was a hoe or a shovel involved in that terminal visitation.

Yesterday afternoon when I approached our back stoop, the rooster was sitting on the top step as if he was waiting to go inside the house. It is a regal, beautiful multi-red colored creature. He wasn’t afraid of me, but apparently grew weary of my questions and left. Haven’t seen him since. Our daughter thinks the rooster was in our garage hiding out.

He didn’t welcome the dawn this morning and the neighborhood is quiet. Too quiet. The resident Cardinal hasn’t even said good morning. We need crowing. I want crowing especially when the rooster indicated he considered our abode to be a safe haven.

You may know more about such things than I, so I’m asking. What makes a rooster lose its crow? What does it mean when it no longer does what God made it to do?

The girl said they are raising chickens for cooking, therefore I’m wondering. Assuming the Red Leghorn is still able to sing, I Googled the question. Some roosters don’t crow because of their low ranking. There are alpha-chickens and the others let the top-chick do the talking. If you want the low echelon to crow, you remove him from his debilitating environment and put him where he is not dominated by the higher ranking birds. That didn’t seem to be the problem with our red Foghorn Leghorn.

Is it possible for a rooster to be traumatized and lose his song?

What happens when a rooster can’t fulfill his life purpose? Actually, what is a leghorn’s life purpose? Other than get chummy with KFC?

You know, of course, that this is a larger concern than about daybreak and the absent crowing. I’m praying for the bird today as I consider fulfilling my purpose, potential and passion.

D. Dean Benton

Benton Quest House