ST. JOHN’S — There was a very happy chicken in a suburb of St. John’s, N.L., on Friday after residents who had been forced to leave their homes because of a wildfire were finally cleared to return.

Hazel, a four-year-old red sex-link chicken, belongs to Susan Barrett, who was evacuated from her Paradise, N.L., home on Tuesday. Barrett was staying at her parents with her husband and their two German shepherds; Hazel had to spend her days sequestered in a garage.

On Friday afternoon, barely an hour after officials announced an end to the evacuation order, the family was home and Hazel was once again running free. “Oh my God, she’s the happiest. She’s out in the yard, on the outskirts of the woods there, and she’s living her best life,” Barrett said in an interview.

“I’m a little bit leery

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