by Bailey White
Staff Writer
Her origin is a mystery, but downtown’s newest resident is a hen who has made a home around the City Hall Annex.
“It’s been about three or four weeks since we first saw her,” said Robyn McKone, who works in the State Attorney’s Office at the Annex. “Apparently someone dropped her off here to be a companion to the rooster.”
The rooster has been around much longer — he and another rooster showed up several years ago. The other rooster died, leaving him alone until now.
“They seem to have taken to each other,” said Bill McDermott, an engineer who works at the Annex. “You don’t usually see them too far apart from each other.”
There are plenty of stories to explain the rooster’s presence downtown.
“The story that I heard is that a restaurant closed down and that he came from there,” said McKone.
Another suggestion is that the rooster migrated from Crawdaddy’s, the now-closed restaurant on the Southbank.
The story most widely accepted, however, is that a man who wanted to raise roosters was refused the necessary zoning permit from the City. Irate, he dumped the two roosters downtown.
He seems perfectly at home downtown.
“He crosses the street like he owns it,” said McKone. “We feed him every day and we coordinate on what we’re giving him. We’ve been feeding him sunflower seeds and his coat has gotten so shiny.”
“He’s become almost a mascot for the building,” said McDermott.
McKone said her office calls him Chaunticleer after the rooster in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” but others know him as Rudy.
“I think everyone has agreed on a name for the hen, though,” McKone said. “She’s Henrietta.”