Insufferable Parrots (or, "Why Is There a Rooster in My Quiet Little 'Burb?")

I'm very used to waking up early.  Due to my train commute and trying to get a bebe and myself ready for the day, my weekdays start at 6am.  Since said bebe has no concept of sleeping in, weekends start at 6:30am if I'm lucky.  [Side note -- this morning, Hubs awoke with HD and let me sleep until 7:30am!! Utter bliss!]  Mind you, this doesn't typically bother me.  I mean, how could one ever mind waking up to this:

Yup, I put a naked pic of my kid on the interwebs.    I'll take it down before she's a teenager.

When HD has had a nice, long sleep, she is an absolute joy when she wakes.  All sunshine and smiles.  Super excited to see Daddy or Mama when either of us go in to get her.  It's like she can't wait to start a new day with her favorite people.  It's really pretty infectious.  And since she now (mostly) sleeps through the night, I'm usually just as stoked to wake and go into her room to greet her each morning.  Until recently, that is.

My little family lives in a small, quaint suburb.  All the restaurants here close by 9pm.  There are four senior living facilities here, and only one public high school.  The itsy bitsy Catholic university next to our neighborhood doesn't exactly have a thriving party atmosphere.  You don't hear any basic traffic noise between the hours 10pm and 6:30am.  "Quiet" barely begins to describe it -- try "sleepy," "placid,"  even "desolate."  

So imagine our surprise when, a couple of weeks ago, we heard the sounds of a faint "cockle-doodle-doo" at FOUR IN THE MORNING.  And it's continually happened (at varying degrees of volume) every morning since, usually from about 5-6:30am.  I don't want to be all City Mouse about this, but seriously?  I may jokingly refer to our little town as "the Boonies," but I did not sign up for Greenacres, y'all.  We inquired with neighbors, and it doesn't appear that anyone local is harboring illicit poultry.  The prevailing theory is that there's a wild rooster roaming about the college area.  We have deer, we even have mountain lion spottings, so I guess why not add wild fowl to the list?  Wonders never cease.

Until then, I think HD and I may have to obtain a couple of cutlasses and be on the lookout for this rooster.  I don't think roosters can really fly, so walking the plank may work as suitable punishment for our recent lack of sleep.

Beware the Lady Harrrrpington Smythe-Beard!