Old Butch the Rooster
Submitted by Dennis Robb
John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several
hundredyoung layers (hens), called "pullets," and ten roosters, whose job it
was to fertilize the eggs (for you city folks).
The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into
the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought
a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a
different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.
Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening
to the bells. The farmer's favourite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine
specimen he was, too.
But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at
all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets,
bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for
cover. But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so
it couldn't ring. He would sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk
on to the next one.
John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and
he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result...The judges
not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also
awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: Who else but a politician
could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our
planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when
they weren't paying attention.