Cracker way to snare chook; now whose is it?

St Joseph's Cathedral School pupils play with a homeless hen in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: STEPHEN...
St Joseph's Cathedral School pupils play with a homeless hen in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY
Plucky Dunedin pupils are questioning why a hen crossed the road to their school and want to find the wandering chicken's owner.

St Joseph's Cathedral School teacher Kelly Braithwaite said a class was interrupted on Wednesday after a pupil ran in hollering about how a hen was crossing Brown St and approaching the school gate.

She took four pupils - Henry Lucas (7), Gabe Lindsay (7), Henry Savage (6) and Carmela Milner-Novak (7) - to help ''herd'' the stray chicken.

Henry Savage said the chicken would not respond to their calls so he crumbled a cheese cracker to help corral the chook.

''We scrunched the cracker and then Mrs B picked the chicken up.''

Mrs Braithwaite cancelled the reading class to allow the 24 pupils in the class to play with the chicken.

Some pupils had never touched a chicken before and while many were scared, the chicken remained calm.

Mrs Braithwaite took the brown shaver chicken home at night and brought it back to class during the day.

The children made ''found'' posters with images of the chicken for posting around the school in the hope the owner could be found.

The school had ''played phone tag'' with SPCA Otago and hoped the shelter could care for the chicken until its owner was found.

The children had yet to decide on a name for the chicken but a list of preferred names had been made.

A vote would decide if the hen was named Chookie, Pearl, Ruby, Florence, Rose, Lola or Serenity.

''They can't decide which one they like the best,'' Mrs Braithwaite said.

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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