UB, I finally got something odd to post here on your odd board. LOL!!

Is this odd enough for you?

Mike the Headless Rooster. Back in the 40s this really happened. It's fully documented and proven that a rooster had its head chopped off and lived for some 4 1/2 years without his head.

Sunday the town in Colorado where it all happened held the first annual Mike the Chicken Day to commemorate the chicken who just refused to die.

The farmer tried to kill him by chopping off his head and because his wife or mother liked fried chicken neck he cut it as close to the head as possible. Mike fell and flopped around for a minute and then jumped up and ran back to the chicken yard to rejoin his fellows.

The farmer could not figure it out. He just kept on living. He tried to crow but only a gurgling sound came out, he went through pecking motions, etc. In short he acted just like any other rooster acts. Soon he became a sensation. He had to be fed with an eye dropper through the opening at the top of his neck. When the farmer realized how famous Mike was getting he took the time and effort to keep him alive.

Scientists came to study the weird chicken who lived on without a head. He was taken to a university and studied and it was determined that he was still alive because the farmer had somehow managed to chop off his head without the brain stem. So that part of his brain was intact at the top of his neck and that's why he stayed alive. LIFE magazine and Time I think, both did photo stories of him.

So the rooster was real. This is not a made up story.

Finally the farmer gave him his name and got him a manager and he was taken on the road with some other strange things like a two headed cow. His head, preserved in a small jar of alchohol went with him.

What finally killed Mike was not his lack of a brain. One day he tried to eat his favorite food, corn, and the kernal got stuck in his throat and he choked to death, 4 1/2 years after his head was cut off.

He acted just like any other rooster during that time. Especially when he was still in the barnyard with the other chickens. He'd even try to tuck his head under his wing when the chickens went to roost at night. And strut around for the hens like the other roosters.

Odd enough?

Alley