Update 4/13/11: We just learned from Harvest Home that Kramer died today. He was a fixture at Oakland Animal Services for several years. He will be missed.
Original Story:
Kramer is a taiwanese fighting cock that the Shelter confiscated during a cock fighting bust about five years ago. He had an injury to his head during a fight. Kramer recuperated but was never quite right. He sleeps standing up, drinks upside down and has trouble staying balanced. Shortly after Kramer arrived, we introduced him to a personable red hen named Chicken Little. He was quickly infatuated with Ms. Little and followed her everywhere.
When Chicken Little died, Kramer went into a deep depression. He stopped eating and wouldn’t get up – we were sure he was dying. However, fate intervened…that same day a citizen surrendered a scraggly easter chick who had been dyed pink. She had grown out of the “cute” chick phase and was a gangly, long legged white chicken and her adult feathers were coming in. We decided to introduce “Pink” to Kramer. We set her down next to Kramer who was lying on the cement with this head drooping down. Pink went up to him and Kramer suddenly hopped to his feet! In seconds, he was years younger and truly a happy rooster. He strutted around the courtyard and showed off his new chicken. He followed around his new girlfriend every day. She adored him to….if Kramer was put back inside before Pink, she would literally wail until she was reunited with him.
Pink, a broiler chicken – a type of chicken who has been genetically altered to grow quickly and extremely large, grew and grew. Soon, Pink was enormous and began having trouble walking and holding up her weight. Broiler chickens have a very short life span. We found Pink dead in her cage yesterday morning with Kramer draped across her. Once again, Kramer is alone and is going into a depression. We are now working fast on finding him a new mate.
UPDATE: We sent Kramer to Harvest Home to be surrounded my girlfriends. He has been reunited with Doris – the disabled chicken. Doris used to live at Oakland Animal Services and used to flirt with Kramer all of the time. However, Chicken Little got a little too jealous of Kramer’s advances so Harvest Home took her in. Now, Kramer and Doris are back together again!