A wily rooster that has been terrorizing late sleepers in Greensboro for over a week was finally apprehended this weekend by Guilford County Animal Control.

The rooster, which has been on the loose in the Green Valley area, became a major social media sensation and many of those who were following the sightings are now concerned about the rooster’s fate.

On Saturday, Jan. 26 Guilford County Animal Control Supervisor Lisa Lee stated that the roaming rooster had been swooped up and whisked to safety.

“He’s already at a foster farm pending adoption,” Lee wrote in an email.

While family dogs that were sent “to a farm where they can roam free” often did not fare too well in reality, in this case those cheering for a happy ending for the rooster can probably rest easy that it will meet with a happy fate.

While the fact that the bird periodically emitted a loud sound that filled the surrounding area was annoying to late sleepers, it made tracking the animal relatively easy.  Anyone with a Nextdoor.com or Facebook account could follow the path of the rooster as it was spotted time and again in various parts of Greensboro in the days leading up to its apprehension.

One Greensboro resident who got a visit from the bird is JJ Greeson, who answers the phones at the main desk of Guilford County government with such a near perfect voice that it makes it hard to believe a human has actually answered the phone, said the footloose fowl came right by her house.

“My neighbor got a picture of it,” Greeson said of the above photo that was shared on social media.

While people are glad the rooster is finally safe, many are disappointed that they will no longer be able to follow the bird’s adventures online.  One woman posted on Nextdoor.com while the bird was still free, “I must say, “I’m really enjoying these updates on the rooster’s whereabouts and I hope he’s well!”

One of the last sightings was at the 3300 block of Windrift Drive, not far from the Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden.

According to one social media post, when Animal Control found the rooster, it led them on about a 20-minute chase before it was nabbed.

One resident who spoke with the Rhino Timeson the condition of anonymity said the rooster had escaped from a nearby residence where it had been living with some chickens that often got loose as well.  That source said there was “something wrong” with the rooster as was evidenced by its behavior and the fact that, when it crowed, it “did not sound right.”

The reason the resident could not speak on the record is that it is against the law for people in Greensboro to keep roosters, and if the source’s name were revealed it would be easy for authorities to canvas the surrounding area and find the law-breaking rooster owner – now former rooster owner.

Until August 2008, Greensboro residents could legally keep a rooster at their homes as long as the rooster was under six months of age; however, enforcement of that law proved difficult since roosters do not generally have a birth certificates and rooster owners would almost always say that the rooster was under six months of age.  In subsequent visits, they would sometimes say it was a different rooster.