(NOTE LANGUAGE) These pickleball players are raising a different kind of racket to raise awareness for a missing rooster.
According to the Miami New Times, pickleballers at Stanley Goldman Memorial Park in Hollywood, Florida, have their own mascot in a rooster nicknamed Pickles, who started mysteriously flocking to the courts during games.
“Everybody got obsessed with him,” player Todd Fopiano tells New Times. “Especially me.”
So, it caused great concern when one day Pickles didn’t show and was nowhere to be found.
“He was family,” Fopiano says. “So, yeah, everybody’s devastated.”
Fopiano adds that he doesn’t believe Pickles left on his own accord, and that the pickleball court “was his home.”
A missing poster for Pickles has since been posted to Craigslist, and Fopiano and his fellow players are continuing to search for the missing bird.
“There’s a void,” Fopiano says. “It’s like, oh s***, Pickles isn’t here anymore.”