There’s a rooster that lives across the arroyo.  There’s something a little off about him, though.  Before you think I’m being mean, let me explain.  It’s 7:24 pm as I write this, and he’s still crowing as heartily as if it were the crack of dawn.

He starts crowing at around 5:30 am, like roosters all around the world.  But this rooster? He doesn’t stop.  He keeps going, on average, once every 20 seconds or so.  I know this ’cause – well –  I timed him.  

All summer and fall of last year, he did the same thing but I think he must have travelled somewhere for the winter because from November through April, I didn’t hear a peep out of him.  As soon as spring came and started stretching, he got dressed and went back to work. 

I have my suspicions about his boss.  Whoever it is, they push him way too hard, making him work long hours.   I know this because:

1 – although he tries to keep up the cock-a-doodle-do (after all, he’s an American rooster so he speaks American) it comes out like he’s on 3% battery life and after a few hours he invariably sounds like “kok–a–dr-dr–dr–dr”.  He actually sounds angry. Then he stops as though he has to pull himself together.

2 – he goes down for a siesta every single day from about 12:45 pm to about 3:00pm. Just to rest up for his afternoon shift.

Since we’re on the topic of how American roosters talk–  years ago, I learnt that to us humans, animals speak differently depending on the passport they hold.

Guyanese roosters holler, “kuk-ku-ru-ku”.
“Koke-ko-ko”, roosters say in Japan
German roosters?  Apparently they crow “ki-ki-ree-ki” (or so I’m told!).
Russian roosters say “koo-ka-ree-koo”.

So which rooster is right? 

The Russian, the German or the Japanese rooster?
Perhaps, though, it’s not a question of linguistics but one of politics. We humans are more often wrong than we are right. And at the end of a long work day, the rooster is always right!