Weyburn rallies to find fowl at play

It's a now infamous story of one fowl's weekend in Weyburn.

A sassy guinea fowl was strutting her stuff in the Opportunity City last weekend after she escaped from her transporting cage on Friday. The hen then took a self-directed tour of Weyburn's downtown area, with dozens of Weyburnites reporting sightings on social media.

The guinea fowl belongs to Shena Underwood. She had just purchased the bird shortly before it escaped. She pulled into Weyburn to pick up some bird feed from Peaveymart after completing an annual bird run through Drinkwater, Moose Jaw and a few other places to pick up chicks and adult birds. 

"By the time I got to Weyburn I had to stop for feed. I pulled into the parking lot at Peavey Mart and one of the guineas was out and in the front of the truck box. My daughter and I tried catching her and she decided she wanted to have a fling in the city," said Underwood and added she has used that cage the hen was in hundreds of times without a problem and that it is only a couple years old.

At a loss as to what she should do, Underwood called the Weyburn Humane Society shelter. Colleen Morrice, shelter manager, answered and she and her daughter, Madison Rubin, came to try to help catch the bird. A man who works at the mall had a fishnet and was also helping in the attempt to catch the bird.

The bird evaded the would-be captors and spent the next little while hopping from balcony to balcony at the apartment complex next to the Scotia Bank and behind the City Centre Mall.

As the weekend wore on, Underwood said she and her daughter continued to receive numerous reports from the public of the bird's location. Some commented on the Weyburn Rant and Rave page when they saw the hen.

Underwood and her daughter, Shanae Underwood, made multiple trips in to Weyburn from their home south of the city try to catch the runaway hen when people reported seeing her on the ground. They borrowed fish nets also but still couldn't catch her. The sassy fowl, who some mistook for a turkey, spent most of her time around the City Centre Mall and one resident even shared a video of her near the entrance.

"She's just strutting back in forth in front of the doors. She was sneaky."

After lots of confusion and misdirection and a offer of a $30 reward for anybody who could capture the hen, which was later rescinded, Underwood's guinea fowl was still on the loose in Weyburn as of Sunday evening and the weather was turning frigid. Todd Thurlow, Kelly Kozij, Scott Fletcher and Keegan Noble formed a plan to wait until after dark and then go catch her.

"Sunday night, I think with the wind and the cold, it kind of was to the guys' advantage. They just about lost her (too) in that compound beside the mall to the west side of the mall. She just about got up over the fence on them again but they nabbed her!"

Underwood now has her bird safely at home just south of Colgate where they also have quail, chickens, goats, rabbits, cows, turkeys, geese, ducks, partridge, mini-horses, horses and more. The grandchildren are planning to visit this coming weekend the sassy guinea fowl will have a new name.

(Update: One of Underwood's grandchildren has named the runaway guinea fowl Chance.)

"She is doing awesome. She is in with the group. She is settling well but we clipped her one wing so she can't fly away on us again."

"I just want to thank everybody for the help and support and all the reports of where she was at, especially the four guys who finally nabbed her and made it possible for me to bring her home without her getting hit," said Underwood.

She added she will always double clip that cage from now on to prevent future would-be escapees taking their own fowl tours of Weyburn.

Colleen Morrice noted that the Weyburn Humane Society is only equipped to deal with cats and dogs. She said she did help in this instance because she was worried about the safety of the bird but once it was out of the way of traffic she returned to her shelter duties.