Document text
Champ crower makes 'Splash' in Rogue River Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Pearl Kruusi of Gold Hill belts out a call during the Rogue River Rooster Crow's human crowing contest Saturday. By JESSICA SMITH Some yelled. Some begged. Some sang songs. Some tried their own cock-a-doodle-doo - anything to get their rooster to crow. Anthony Sprague just stood there and let Splash, an English game bantam, do his thing. "He's just a regular crower," said Sprague, 11, of Rogue River. "At home, he crows all day long." In half an hour Saturday, Splash belted out 49 crows to win the 48th annual National Rooster Crow Championship in Rogue River. The contest is one of the highlights of the weekend-long Rogue River Rooster Crow, which continues today at the elementary school. Splash out-crowed 44 other roosters Saturday and Sprague took home $150. The contest was a disappointment for Kevin Kelley, of Wimer. His rooster, Bat, turned chicken once the judging started. The trip into Rogue River may have taken it out of the old bird, Kelley said. "He's out of his element," Kelley added, who was still waiting for Bat to crow after time keepers called the contest. "He's scared. He's worried about his feathers - they're all messed up." Last year's crow champion, Love Machine, couldn't find his groove Saturday. His owner, Debbie Farmer-George of Vista, Calif., cooed and coaxed, but Love Machine couldn't match his 2000 performance. "You're just a love machine," Farmer-George crooned, "and you don't crow for nobody but me." Love Machine managed to get out 17 crows. Last year, he nabbed the title with 36. "There's a lot of pressure," said Farmer-George. "Next year, we're going to start training earlier. I'll show him the video so he can get his strut down." But Love Machine and Farmer-George didn't go home empty-handed. Farmer-George took top honors in the human rooster crow contest. How does she do it? "I get my wings going, look up at the sky, take a deep breath of this clean Oregon air and, because I'm a rooster, think about hens, and then I just crow." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.