Rescued From Life on the Streets, Willie the Rooster Finds Love in Sanctuary Home

Anyone who is single and looking for a relationship knows how hard it is to find a connection these days. Facebook, Instagram, dating apps … what happened to good old-fashioned courting? Well, the folks at Lewis Oliver Farm Sanctuary still believe in a good ole fashioned set-up. And in this case, it was between residents Willie Crowman and Cinderella – and with names like this they seem destined to fall in love! And we can only hope that if not love, then these two at least find friendship. After all, they did not have the easiest beginnings.

Hope for Willie

Willie was discovered going door to door in a residential neighborhood crowing pleas of help to anyone he saw. In fact, his name is a take on Willie Loman, the door to door salesman in the play “Death of a Salesman.” Poor Willie had only one good leg and spent a week hopping around the neighborhood looking for help. Sadly roosters are often not seen as the intelligent and complex creatures that they are, and therefore, not as likely to get the kind of help a hurt puppy might receive.

Fortunately, Willie took up residence on the porch of a kind-hearted family that recognized this guy needed help.  They reached out to Lewis Oliver Farm Sanctuary and when Volunteer Barn Manager Lorene Eriksen heard the story, she grabbed some cracked corn (for bribing) and set out with a cat carrier to get the little guy.

From Lost to Loved

Sadly, many sanctuaries are not able to take in all of the calls they receive for roosters because there are just so many out there that have been abandoned.  According to Lorene these animals,”come from local schools who still choose to do classroom hatch projects and from backyard chicken keepers who either wind up with a rooster among their mail order chicks or those who breed them despite not being zoned to keep roosters or even wanting to since rooster can’t grow up to lay the much sought after eggs.”  On top of that, there are still people who use roosters for cockfighting which is just incredible considering we have a million other ways to entertain ourselves in 2016.

Luckily for Willie, the rapidly declining temperatures and the description of his bad leg got him rescued just in time. And when he was brought to his new forever home, the caretakers found he was covered in mites and had a huge sore on his bad leg. They went about cleaning the rooster and patching him up, all the while being grateful he was rescued.

Willie is doing just fine these days. In fact, he’s got enough swagger that the caretakers at Lewis Oliver Farm Sanctuary thought it was time for him to stop spending his nights on Netflix and start getting out there! And so far it looks like he has met a match with Cinderella who, like Willie, was found wandering around a residential neighborhood with mites covering her body.

This hen wasn’t looking for love, but according to Eriksen, “something about Willie’s bad leg causes him to skip like a pair of runaway scissors” and that’s just what caught Cinderella’s attention. She couldn’t help but stare. In a display of good old-fashioned chivalry, Willie took some of the fresh watermelon that the caretakers left for them and brought it to Cinderella, where he then broke it up into smaller bite size pieces and left them at her feet. We mean hello – we could all learn a lot from this guy!

With their shared histories and newfound hope, we are sure that these two will take advantage of all the beauty … and romance … their new home has to offer.

You can help these amazing animals by sharing their stories and letting people know that ALL animals are unique individuals who deserve compassion and kindness! If you would like to make a donation to help with the care of the animals at Lewis Oliver Farm Sanctuary, click here.

All image source: Lewis Oliver Farm