My neighbors have chickens and also two roosters

Need I say more? Don't worry, I will.

When we first bought the house almost 10 months ago, we had seen it mostly in the daytime and in the early evening. Completely disregarding the common advice to come by the house at night to see the noise levels, we went ahead and got the house. I remember as we were moving a few of our things and cleaning supplies over that night, some college kids in the house behind us seemed to be having a loud party.

I was freaking out. "This is awful. What if it's always like this? I can't believe I didn't think to come here at night before - especially being in a college neighborhood!"

My husband was more sane. He pointed out that it was a Friday night and it was only around nine. My brain refused to be deterred by his reason and I continued to freak out for the rest of the hour that we spent cleaning everything inside the house, which had been empty for some time and had a delicious layer of mildew over pretty much everything.

After cleaning, we went back to the place we were renting and got some sleep. Saturday was the big move and with the in-law's help, we were able to get the majority of our belongings moved over with their truck and my Sebring. I was much too exhausted from packing and moving that evening to worry about any parties and the noise they might create. I fell asleep on our floored mattress (the bed had broke in the move).

The morning was heralded by roosters.

At first, as I woke up confused and slightly annoyed, I couldn't make out what kind of noise I was hearing. It didn't sound like a dog; it definitely wasn't a cat; squirrels could make some weird noises but that wasn't it either and I knew it wasn't (most likely) a horse given the size of the yards in the neighborhood.

My husband, now also awake, listened with me. In the relative otherwise silence of the moment, we realized that the noise was a rooster. Or two. Their crows sounded as though it took their last rooster breath to form each crow. We were unsure whether they were letting us know the sun was coming up or whether they were honestly dying.

10 months later, I can assure you that they are not dying.

We had friends over one evening some time ago and when one of them heard the roosters, she paused and asked about the odd noise. Once we explained that our neighbors kept roosters and pointed out the tops of the chicken coops that you could just see over their large privacy fence, she looked puzzled. "I've never heard that noise come out of a rooster before. Are they dying?"

"If only."