It was another day in summer at R and R Garage in North Carolina when a random rooster wandered over to the garage. The employees thought that he would leave after some time, but it seemed like he had other plans. He didn’t want to leave. The employees assumed that he had been abandoned and decided to feed him with the leftovers from the fridge. They thought that he would move to another spot when they took a long weekend, but surprisingly when they returned, he was still there.

That’s how Earl- the rooster started to become the shop rooster. Earl sleeps in a nearby tree at night, but when the weather is bad, everyone makes sure he is safely inside at the night. Every morning when the employees arrive at work, he greets them and falls into a daily routine. “He comes running when the first guy comes in to open up for the day,” Joe Gallo, co-owner of R and R Garage, said. “He gets his cup of scratch and 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 breakfast hunt, Earl likes to follow his coworkers in the garage. He definitely is thinking that he belongs to them and at this point, he is kind of.

“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 seems to have no idea but he walks on his way, and everyone at the shop just accepts that working around their rooster mascot is a part of their daily job.

After Earl came to “work” at the shop, he became a bit of a local celebrity. Everyone at the shop is also in love with him. They are even planning to change their logo and get shirts made to include him, to show him that he is officially in 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 to pick up their vehicles.”

No one knows why he is here and where did he come from, but everyone in the garage is so glad that he did.