Chicken in the Engine

One time while working for Lafayette Housing Authority and Americorps, a live chicken got stuck in my car engine...I know you're wondering how such a thing could happen. Had i not witnessed it, i would not have believed it:

A couple of the kids i was working with, discovered that one of their neighbors had a live chicken in his back yard. They talked about this for hours on end. You would think that after hearing this story repeated so many times that afternoon, i would have been more watchful during their recess. Immediately recess started, they ran out to the neighbor's backyard and let the chicken out of it's enclosure. Then the chasing began. The loud shrieks of laughter and excitement caught my attention. When i realized what was causing the excitement, i was understandably worried. On the one hand, I knew that the kids were not brave enough to catch the chicken once it was cornered, on the other hand, the chicken had to be kraaled before the neighbor found out what was happening.

So naturally, my staff and i joined in the chase...i didn't let anyone know that i was just as scared of the chicken as the kids were. After about 10 mins of determined chasing, the chicken could not take it any longer. It ran under my car and eventually made it's way up the engine.

At first we thought we had it completely cornered and all we needed to do was poke it out from the top. Unfortunately, our little friend had been frightened to the point where he was willing to risk it all to avoid any more chases. The more we poked, the deeper it crawled. Soon it was completely stuck and couldn't move if it wanted to. So we did what any sensible person would do under the circumstances; we called the police!

By now the neighbor had heard what had happened and needless to say, he was not in a very good mood. He explained that he got the chicken for his grand-daughter who lived in a farm, and was planning to transport it to her that evening.

Two police officers and two animal control experts worked frantically to free the chicken but gave up after about an hour. The "owner" of the chicken, after several minutes of calling the children vile names, began to see the humor in the situation and thought his grand-daughter would think the story more interesting than actually raising a chicken. He called and narrated the story to her, and sure enough she was laughing so loudly that any tension left was alleviated.

Four hours into the incident, we were still trying to decide what to do. It was already getting dark and most of the children had gone to their homes. The police officers and animal control experts had advised (then left) that i turn on the engine and maybe the heat or the sound of the motor would coax the chicken out of the engine. I visualized much more than a coaxing out...'

I waited until all the children had left then turned on the engine. The chicken did not budge...i had to go home...long story short, the chicken was not in the engine the next day...