PLAIN CITY, Ohio — The summer may be drawing to an end, but it's one the residents of Plain City won't be forgetting any time soon.
It's all thanks to a team effort to find a little guy who lost his way a place to call home.
Harold, as he’s called, captured the curiosity of the community.
He’s a rooster, who now lives with dozens of hens, cared for by Mark Hochstetler.
"It's been a real privilege and an opportunity for me to come rescue Harold," said Hochstetler.
"Everyone just seems to love him,” said Andy Leer, another Plain City resident.
Harold was found at Pastime Park in Plain City at the end of July.
"I was a little blown away by the support. It seemed a little surreal,” said Ron Gurth, a volunteer at Pastime Park Campground.
After the weekend-long event wrapped up, he noticed a certain someone was left behind.
"Show ended on a Sunday. By Monday morning everybody was gone and Harold was still here,” he said.
No one knows where he came from.
Neighbors taking their kids to play in the park’s playground started posting updates of his whereabouts daily - sometimes hourly - on Facebook.
They said he was friendly. Some posted pictures of the rooster on the playground. At one point he was given the name Harold.
"Harold's a handsome rooster,” said Leer.
Days of tracking Harold turned into weeks.
Until one day, Harold was gone.
"I was worried about a week,” said Gurth, feared the popular rooster had been killed.
But Harold was OK. More than OK.
"Harold just looked like a great fit for my flock,” said Hochstetler.
When Hochstetler realized no one was coming back for the rooster, he brought him in.
A relief for people like Andy Leer, who was one of the many neighbors tracking Harold.
Celebrating Harold's story, he designed t-shirts and created a new comic series.
"It's a very pleasant distraction from all the serious things that are going on right now. Harold's kind of a Godsend in that way,” he said.
This story really isn't about a rooster. It's about the living proof that in Plain City, no one is left behind.
"When you care about the small things you also care about the big things,” said Hochstetler. "It's what we do with each other as a community."
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