quote:

It was just a normal day last summer at R and R Garage in North Carolina when a rooster randomly wandered over to the garage, and didn’t seem to have any plans to leave. The employees assumed he’d been abandoned and began feeding him leftovers from the shop fridge, but when they took a long weekend, they sort of figured he would move on to another spot.

When they all returned, though, he was still there, so they named him Earl and he’s been the shop rooster ever since.

Earl sleeps in a nearby tree at night, unless the weather is bad, and then everyone makes sure he’s safely inside for the night. Every morning, Earl eagerly greets his fellow employees as they arrive at work for the day, and he’s fallen into a daily routine around the shop that everyone has come to know and love.

“He comes running when the first guy comes in to open up for the day,” Joe Gallo, co-owner of R and R Garage, told The Dodo. “He gets his cup of scratch, then wanders the shop looking for any bugs that may be around. He gets up under all the toolboxes and workbenches looking for spiders and anything else he can find.



After his morning breakfast hunt, Earl likes to follow all of the employees around the garage and hang out with them. He definitely seems to think he’s just one of the guys working for the garage, and, at this point, he kind of is.

“He will come up in the shop and usually lay down and sleep under the car you’re working on or in a corner,” Gallo said. “He doesn't care about loud noises or people walking by. He will even sleep in front of the office door and we've tripped over him a few times.”



Earl has been “working” at the shop for so long now that he’s become a bit of a local celebrity, and everyone at the shop has wholeheartedly embraced their little feathered coworker. They’re even working on changing their logo and getting shirts made to include him, to show him that he’s officially part of the team.

“We can't believe the attention Earl is getting ... it’s the town gossip now,” Gallo said. “We do have customers that bring other friends or family to see Earl when they come pick up their vehicles.”

No one is quite sure where Earl came from or why he chose the R and R Garage to be his home, but everyone there is so glad that he did, and now definitely considers him part of their extended family.