BENSALEM, Pennsylvania (AP) - It could be a case of foul play for three chickens that travel the country's state-fair circuit playing tic-tac-toe against humans at 25 cents a game. 

Tic, Tac and Toe -- "educated poultry" whose owners say have never been beaten by a human -- have been missing for a week and a half after they were apparently removed from their cages at the Pennsylvania Fair in suburban Philadelphia. "We haven't seen so much as a feather of them," says owner and trainer Steve Boger, who also trains racing pigs and helps run the family's traveling 150-animal petting zoo. 

The chickens draw long lines of visitors who want to face off with a chicken over tic-tac-toe. The chicken always starts the game. Boger won't reveal the secret to training tic-tac-toe birds, though he says it takes several months and includes a special diet. 

"I've seen a chicken beat somebody 25 games in a row," Boger says. "If chickens can laugh, they really think this is funny." 

The second-string replacement chickens have an equally perfect record as their missing predecessors -- no losses, though sometimes they tie -- but apparently are slightly slower.  "I can't say they're not as good, since I can't even tie them," says fair spokeswoman Carole Morganti. "They are just not as fast. My 12-year-old daughter has tied them."

The Bogers, who have a farm in Springdale, Ark., travel to fairs with their animals about 10 months out of the year. At last year's Pennsylvania Fair, the Bogers lost a piglet, but it was returned to the local humane society a few days later. 

Since the three light-brown chickens disappeared, the fair has received more than a dozen calls with tips and chicken sightings, Morganti says. Among them was a person reporting that her neighbor had a suspicious number of chickens in his back yard and a high school where several chickens were released in the hall as a prank. 

"I don't know why chickens are all of sudden running around the area," Morganti says. "Evidently there are chickens all over and I just never heard about it."   Boger has urged the community to search for chickens reading the newspaper - "They're pretty smart," he says -- or playing games.  Asked if the intelligent fowl could have opened the cages themselves and made a run for it, Boger is doubtful:  "They're not Houdini," Boger says, "they're just Tic, Tac, Toe." 

Copyright © 2001 The Associated Press.
[source: CNN Fringe News Newsletter at www.cnn.com]

REDDING, Calif. - May, 2001 - One afternoon a few weeks back, Stretch the rooster perched himself atop the axle of a truck, inches from the tire. It must have seemed a good place to spend the night. Not long after dark fell, Ken Moon got into the truck, started the engine and left his brother's house for his own - more than 100 miles away. Somehow, Stretch survived with just a ruffled tail.

"We were just amazed he made that ride," said Jim Moon, 51, of Redding, Ken's brother and the bird's owner.  The first leg of Stretch's journey was a winding, dark ride. Once home, Ken Moon parked his 1-ton Ford and went to bed, rising before dawn and again starting the truck. The rooster remained perched on the axle.

Of course, Ken Moon didn't know there was a stowaway aboard as he drove to Douglas City that morning for his work as a contractor. When he arrived, stopped the truck, got out and walked a short distance, he spotted the banty rooster following behind. "I went, 'Boy, that looks like my brother's chicken,' " Ken Moon, 53, said. " 'How the hell did he get out here?' "  Chicken droppings on the truck's axle answered that question.  Since his wild ride, Stretch has become a bit of a celebrity, the Moons say. Neighbors bring him grain. The story is told again and again.

But that's not new. The people-loving rooster has always called for attention.  "He'll jump on your shoulder and follow you around," Jim Moon said. "He doesn't know he's a chicken."

Nothing's changed. But the brash, cocky Stretch has learned one important lesson, Jim Moon said. "He didn't get on the truck again."

Death Threats - The 4-year-old Rhode Island Red, beloved friend and pet of 13-year-old Jessica Flight, had been accused of making a mess at a town war memorial in Finchingfield in Essex, just outside of London. A parish councilor threatened to “wring her neck” at an emotional meeting last year, according to reports by the Daily Telegraph.

Then came the white van, which almost struck Violet as she crossed the road on her way home from the park in question.  That led the Flights to take out the insurance policy, underwritten by a company called Grip. The policy calls for a payment of one million pounds ($1.6 million) in the event the chicken was trapped, killed and eaten by a councilman.  “I know the pun fowl play comes to mind but it is to be taken seriously,” Paula Flight, Jessica’s mom, told the BBC. “It’s suspicious circumstances that she was found outside the pen.” 

Assassination? - Flight told the BBC that she had tucked the chicken into bed one December night and closed her pen.  “Unfortunately she was found outside the pen very dead” the next morning, she said. Flight told the network  that the chicken would have been unable to open the pen herself.  Flight and her husband, Ron, who run the Fox Pub, kept the chicken as a pet for their daughter, Jessica. They have not yet decided whether or not to replace Violet, according to the BBC. 

The Fine Print - “My daughter is still very upset because it was her pet,” she told the news service.  But the policy had fine print: Violet had to be killed and eaten by the councilor. Flight said she would be looking into the fine print, but so far police have not been asked to investigate, according to the Telegraph. The insurance company is conducting its own investigation, Flight told the BBC.  She has asked anyone with information on the death of the chicken to come forward.
[source: www.abcnews.com]