UNION, Maine — It’s not unheard of for pets to wander off and never be seen again. Unfortunately, this happens all the time. But one family in Union just got lucky after a beloved farm animal returned home after almost a year on the run.
Last spring, Lizzie Dickerson was looking out the window and noticed one of her pets was not in his usual outdoor hangout spot. After several days, Dickerson realized her pet was gone and assumed the worst.
"We searched everywhere, and we asked all our neighbors, and nobody saw him," Dickerson said. "I just figured he must have been eaten by a chicken hawk."
To her surprise, Dave the rooster was very much alive.
"I was out jogging with my puppy, and I heard a rooster caw from the woods," Dickerson's neighbor, Keri Kaczor, said. "I thought that was strange and continued on my jog. On my way back home, Dave came running out."
Kaczor texted Dickerson that Dave had returned and was in the woods.
"I was pretty amazed," Dickerson said. "I've had animals my whole life, and I really didn't think a chicken could survive in the winter out in the wild."
After seeing the text from Kaczor, Dickerson went to get Dave.
"He came running right up when he saw us," she said.
After 10 months on his own, Dave was back home. Dickerson brought him inside to recover from his nearly yearlong adventure.
"He had a toe missing, his feet were frozen, his comb was all black," Dickerson explained.
Dave appears to be doing well and back to his normal self, but everyone has a lot of questions for him.
"If anyone knows a chicken whisperer or communicates with chickens, I really am so curious as to what Dave had been up to," Kaczor said.
Questions aside, the neighborhood is just happy to have its rooster back.
"He's got the most glorious crow of any rooster I've ever heard, and just an incredible set of feathers, and he kind of just walks around, and talks to everybody," Dickerson said.
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