JEFFERSON, Maine — At the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, one can visit to adopt a cat and end up meeting a houseful of them.

Even during a relatively quiet time for the nonprofit, Matt Blanchard led me to individual rooms housing cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits. There was another one for birds.

He said the rescue facilitates more than 2,000 adoptions each year, but he had recently met a face he hadn’t seen before in his halls.

"We do get, you know, two or three chickens a year," he explained. "But roosters are a bit more rare. I think this is the first rooster I've seen come through."

City workers had brought in a rooster they picked up off Portland streets. According to city code , residents may own up to six chickens for personal use, but roosters are forbidden. The

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