SLIDELL, La. — A Popeyes restaurant in Slidell, Louisiana, got a new mascot when a rooster walked up one day and never left.

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The rooster first appeared at the Popeyes restaurant the day after Hurricane Ida in 2021, and instead of shooing it away, the restaurant’s employees adopted him, WWL reported.

“Where did the chicken come from, who has chickens around,” Muhassin Shepherd, the restaurant’s general manager, told WWL. “We looked around the neighborhood and they was like, ‘it’s not our chicken.’”

Employees named the animal Rocco and built him a coop that’s visible from the drive-through, WWL reported.

It’s a shocking sight for customers. One customer posted on Facebook after seeing the rooster, saying “I wish I could make this up. … the chicken walked in front of my car to the door trying to get in. Gets to the order screen they built him a chicken coop.”

The rooster does not seem upset by the fact that his fellow chickens are being cooked and served inside.

“It’s like he knows we’re watching him. It’s like he wants everybody to come see him, look at my feathers, listen to me crow,” Shepherd told WWL.

Shepherd told WWL the store has actually seen increased sales and business, thanks to Rocco’s job as the restaurant’s unofficial mascot.

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