About roosters - a diversion

Let me start with a big thank you for all the comments and e-mails of support I have received in the last couple of days.  They are heartwarming and always appreciated.
First, a quick update.  Dave's mom is still in palliative care - we are just waiting for the phone call now.  Our son Eric tells us that she is peaceful.  My work is essentially on hold until the end of the big 10th anniversary conference that HOPE is now putting on.  I will be supporting them by doing registration etc.  After that we will see.

As the uncertainty in our lives continues, one turns to more mundane things to keep our mind off troubling ones. So I want to tell you about the humble rooster (not so humble actually!)

Around my place of work and my home, actually everywhere in Bamenda, there are roosters.  Not a creature that I have paid particular attention to in the past, the rooster has insituated itself in my daily life.  Where once I though of being woken up early by a country rooster an idyllic country image, now I am more likely to want them to just shut up. 

Who would have thought that cookle-doodle-doo could be so loud.  On reflection, when waking up a whole barnyard I guess one must be loud.  Still the other day, when one proud specimen let it all out just beneath my window, I truly jumped out of my chair.  I thought the world was coming to an end.  And trust me, they don't just crow in the morning, they start way before dawn and go all day. As a matter of fact, I hear one outside my window as I write this.

Not that I dislike the rooster.  He is a proud animal, strutting around his domain, usually surrounded by several hens.  With his head, crowned by a magnificient red crest, held high, he constantly surveys his entourage through jerky head movements, the rest of him very still, frequently letting out his cry.   Yesterday, as I was looking out my window, there was one.  As I stood up, the sharp eye made contact - I swear he was daring me to come closer, despite the wall and window that separated us.  Because roosters seem to have one eye on each side of the head, they always look like they are peering at you with suspicion. 

I don't know much about the love life of the rooster.  Here is what I have briefly observed.  The rooster, head erect, prances about the yard, cookle-doodle-doing at leisure, surrounded by his harem.  Then in a flash he sprints and jumps onto a neaby hen from behind.  By this time, the hen is already running away for dear life, but he jumps anyway.  Then, he falls off, straightens himself out and struts away.   Hard to say whether or not he has succeeded - it all happens in a flash.  By the number of eggs that are available around here, I gather he is successful more often than not.  Talk about the 30 second deed, this is more like 3.

Anyway so much about the rooster.  I trust that next time you hear one in the distance, or spot one, you will think of this creature with a different eye.