Road-tripping rooster

When Ellie Fant first adopted a tiny Serama cockerel, she had no idea he would become her best friend and travel companion. From waterfalls to supermarkets, Fergus was not just a chicken... he was family, as told to Cara Wheeldon

- Cara Wheeldon

In the world of bantams, few stories are as heart-warming and unusual as that of Fergus the Serama. Small in stature but bursting with character, Fergus was more than just a pet. To Ellie Fant, a 39-year-old kennel hand from South Wales, he was a loyal sidekick, a shoulder companion, and the kind of best friend who never left her side.

Fergus did not come into Ellie’s life with fanfare or planning. He was, in her words, a rescue of convenience. “I saw someone looking for homes for cockerels for free, and I thought I could save one,” she says. It was a split-second decision that would change her life.

“He was very young when he came to me,” recalls Ellie. “He had to be rehomed, though, because he had hit the age where he started fighting with his brother.”

At first, the bond was not instant. Fergus was skittish and bratty, and Ellie did not feel an immediate connection. “I thought he did not like me to start with,” notes Ellie. “But in the first week of having him, he ran into the neighbour’s field, where we lost him for an entire week!” It was not until later, when Ellie heard noises from the field, that she ran out to find him.

“He ran up to me like, “Thank God, someone has found me,”” laughs Ellie. “From there, it was complete trust.”

That trust deepened following a traumatic fox attack that claimed the lives of Ellie’s two other cockerel Silkies. With Fergus the last bird standing, Ellie took extraordinary measures to keep him safe.

“I put Fergus in my van, in a dog crate in the front seat,” she recalls. “He lived on my front seat for probably about three months.”

Her underlying fear was that the fox would return to the same patch of land and claim the last of her bachelors. So, in an act of preservation, Ellie decided to share her space with her small companion.