Family Life with Our Pets

Taking care of our family is a totally time consuming job and adding a family pet can sometimes be overwhelming. At sometime in a person life if they are lucky enough, a creature comes into their lives and they are forever changed. I was blessed twice by two very unique pets who surely drifted into my life by the hand of God. One sunny weekend my husband Larry was on the front porch putting a buckle on a leather belt. He took to the porch because of the natural light. Grumbling into my kitchen he said the darnest thing happened to him outside. A bright red fully grown rooster was out there and wouldn't leave him a lone. He said he shooed it away about five times but the rooster just came back and acted like he was curious to see what my husband was working on. I walked outside to take a look at this curious creature and told my husband to leave it alone and I wanted it to stay here. I told him that God sent him here for a reason and I felt he was going to be special. My husband complained but I held firm and the rooster stayed. As I watched this rooster wander around my yard with his bright red feathers bouncing in the wind, I could hear the British voice of my best friend who passed away the year before. "Roger Dodger" was her favorite phrase. Well Roger Dodger would be his name. Roger came everyday when Larry got home and became Larry's new best friend. He ate out of his hand and put his head in the crook of Larry's arm and just stood there. They became inseparable. There was just something abut Larry that Roger couldn't resist.
The first big family Barbecue came a month after Roger showed up at our door. There were adults and children everywhere, spilling out the front porch to the fire pit and the trampoline. Everywhere you looked were people but not one rooster to be found. Roger was watching this strange commotion from the safety of belly of our old boat. I could only imagine all the smells and noise he was taking all in. After that first get together Roger was never a wall flower again. Within in a month there was another Barbecue and this time Roger was the life of the party. One moment he was eating watermelon with the kids, the next he was standing in line with all the other men admiring the new truck my brother had bought. He would stare for hours just looking at himself in the chrome of that darn truck. He was one of us. I began dressing him up for our special get together by making him a red and black cape with his name on the side. He was so good to just stand on the deck rail while I tied his cape around his neck. I always took his cape off before sunset because I didn't want someone to wreck their car if they saw this red rooster walking down the side of the road with his cape flapping in the wind! The 4th of July was to be a big event at our house so I decorated everything that would stand still, Roger included. By this time anyone could just pick old Roger up and he would just let them pet him. He was the most mild tempered rooster I had ever met. When the party got under way the good times and good food flowed. It wasn't long before sunset closed in. This was Rogers sign to leave the party, it was time to roost. He felt the need to leave and made several attempts at leaving but something always drew him back to the crowd of people. My mother later told me that she saw Roger leaving to go into the forest where he slept in the tree's but a small child saw him and picked him up. She put him back down a few minutes later and Roger looked towards the trees for a brief moment and just turned toward the party and joined everyone again. The time for leaving was gone, too late to make it safely to a tree, out of danger from animals that roamed the night. As the party raged on someone noticed Roger eyeing up the roof of our house. "Hey, someone yelled "Roger needs to get up on the roof to sleep." They gently put him on the deck tent and ever so easy Roger made it to the roof. That was the night that Roger stayed at the party too late. He slept up there all night. Roger was taken from us the next year when he was hit trying to cross the road one cold and foggy morning. We laid him to rest by the line of trees he came out of that wonderful spring morning. Our family would be forever changed by his presence. He gave all of us so much and I think he will never be forgotten by so many who met this strange and wonderful bird. So if you pick your families next pet or like us it picks you I can only hope that the creatures and people God drifts in and out of our life can come to mean as much to you as "Roger Dodger" meant to us.
God has so richly blessed us with Family, friends and pets. I will save the story of "Penny" at a later post. May your family be touched by the unconditional love of that of a pet. Aunt Onie