Jeniffer and John Little were rollerblading down their usual trail the other day, as the couple always did, when John suddenly saw something under a bridge that stopped him in his tracks.
“John was a little ahead of me, and all of a sudden, he slows down and says, ‘Wait … is that a rooster?’” Jeniffer told The Dodo. “Sure enough, there was a rooster just standing there on the side of the bridge, right next to this old Nike box.”
The Littles were stunned. They’d traveled down that trail countless times, but they’d never encountered a lone rooster before. When they asked a nearby fisherman if the rooster was his, he confirmed their worst fears.
“The guy laughs and goes, ‘Nah, I just saw someone walk up with that box, drop it off, and walk away,’” Jeniffer said.
Jeniffer and her husband couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“I felt this mix of anger and sadness right away,” Jeniffer said. “How could someone drop off such a small, fragile animal and leave him like that? He didn’t stand a chance out there, especially with predators around. He wouldn’t have made it a night.”
As animal lovers, Jeniffer and John couldn’t just roll away and leave the rooster behind. Without verbally communicating their intention to save him to each other, the couple simply sprang into action.
“There wasn’t even a moment of doubt. I knew we couldn’t leave him there,” Jeniffer said. “We didn’t even have to say anything. We just gave each other a look, and that was it.”
You can watch that harrowing rescue here:
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Jeniffer quickly removed her rollerblades and carefully approached the bird. Using the experience they’d acquired from caring for John’s mom’s chickens, the couple scooped up the rooster, later named Nike, and carried him all the way home.
They weren’t expecting to pick up a chicken that morning, but as soon as they had Nike in their arms, they felt destined to have saved him.
“Funny enough, John’s mother … had been encouraging us to get some for months. But we kept brushing it off with things like, ‘Maybe someday,’ or, ‘Now’s just not the right time.’” Jeniffer said. “But in that moment when we found Nike, we knew that God, or the universe, had sent him our way. We were meant to find him.”