CATHY INGALLS ALBANY DEMOCRAT-HERALD | Posted: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:00 pm
SCIO - Scio's official mascot, Big Red, is dead.
The 8-year-old Rhode Island rooster died about 5 p.m. Tuesday after being mauled by a dog. The dog had pounced on Big Red as the bird walked on a Main Street sidewalk while returning to the Scio Feed and Country Store where he lived. The dog spotted the slow-walking rooster and jumped on him through an open window of a parked car.
Following the attack, the bird staggered several steps to the front door of veterinarian Sally Cole's office where he collapsed, said Marian Heikkila, who along with her husband, Audie, had cared for the bird since he rode into town in 1998 in the bed of a pickup.
The cause of death was broken ribs and internal bleeding.
"I'm told that about 4:30 p.m., Big Red was in front of the Scio True Value Hardware Store when he was attacked," Marian said. "I got a call at home from my husband telling me to get to Sally's office right away. When I arrived, Audie was there and there Big Red was on the table and they were giving him oxygen.
"I just said 'Oh Red,' and he took a couple of breaths and died, and then everyone started crying. When I first looked at him, I could tell there was no hope," she said.
Later Marian learned that when staff members at Cole's office saw Big Red at the front door they rushed out and scooped him up, taking him inside. Someone called Audie over, and he held the bird while X-rays were taken.
She also found out that when the dog's owner returned to the car, bystanders told him what happened and asked him to go into Cole's office, where he left his name and telephone number.
The day Big Red rolled into Scio, no one knew who he belonged to or why he was in the pickup.
One of the first things he did after jumping from the pickup was to wander over to the Heikkila's store. He made a home in the store's warehouse, and every morning at 8 a.m. he crowed to be let out from the building where he spent the night.
For a few moments, he would pause on the warehouse steps to preen before beginning what became a daily routine: He headed across the street and down the alley to the Scio Food Center/Deli on Main Street. At the store a block away, he crowed until a bread deliveryman came out to give him a cinnamon roll and fill a tiny ceramic dish with water.
After gobbling up the food and drinking the water, Big Red would return to the store via Main Street. He stopped at other stores along the way for sliced grapes and popcorn.
He returned to the grocery store around lunch time looking for handouts from students.
Every afternoon shortly before 5, he returned to the feed store to be locked up for the night.
Each day, the routine would begin all over again.
After a story about Big Red's travels ran in the Democrat-Herald, he was featured on segments aired by television stations in Portland and Eugene and on CNN and Fox News.
As word about the strange bird spread, people made special trips to Scio to see him. He was photographed numerous times by tourists, and he began appearing regularly in the Linn County Lamb and Wool Fair parades.
In 1999, some FFA members needed a rooster for a category where they lacked entries for the Linn County Fair. Big Red filled in, and won Best of Class and Grand Champion. His ribbons hang on a wall at the feed store.
Big Red had a brush with death earlier this year when a customer's dog wandered into the warehouse and attacked him. The Heikkila's cat cornered the dog before it could do the bird more harm.
A bite from the incident caused one of Big Red's wings to droop and an infection set in. The bird, however, made a full recovery.
In February, Audie took the rooster to the Centennial Elementary School gym, where students gave Audie the $113.15 they had collected to help pay Big Red's medical bills. The children then sang two choruses of "For He's a Jolly Good Rooster."
Not all of the money given to help with Big Red's recovery was used. The remaining funds will help pay for a memorial potluck party to honor the rooster.
The event will be at 6 p.m. July 29 near the Lamb and Wool Fair pens where he liked to sun himself during the summer. Everyone is invited and those who knew Big Red are asked to share stories about the fabled bird that gained national fame.
The Heikkilas say they plan to have Big Red mounted, and he will be on display at their store.
"Everyone loved this bird and he certainly was a Scio attraction," Marian said.