Bravest chicken Pudgie is squawk of the town
THIS TAKES some courage — the FDNY’s Bravest football team has a pet that’s a chicken.
And team members are not afraid to show they are smitten.
As the team practiced at Jamaica High School last week, their recently adopted pet, Pudgie, daintily roamed the perimeter, picking through the grass. Team members occasionally walked over to where Pudgie had strayed — too close to the gate, under a food truck, too near teenagers — and fetched her. She got an apple to snack on, and a shower over her feathers from a bottle of water to keep her cool on the sidelines.
She may be doted upon now, but Pudgie narrowly escaped a very different fate.
She was found malnourished last month and wandering the streets near a Chicago slaughterhouse while the Bravest were in town for a game.
“She just hung out with us . . . . We couldn’t let her go. She had to come with us,” said Jarrett Howe, 31, of Ladder 8 in Tribeca, as Pudgie sat calmly in the arms of Desi DeFrietas, 43, who works in Maspeth’s Squad 288.
Pudgie has visited firehouses in all five boroughs, and her travels are documented on her Instagram account. She has more than 1,700 followers.
The Bravest are hoping Pudgie’s newfound celebrity will assist in promoting their fund-raising efforts for two charities that serve the families of deceased firefighters.
She’s named for FDNY Lt. Robert (Pudgie) Walsh, a retired firefighter and a founder of the team, who died last September.
“Someone just yelled ‘It’s Pudgie,’ and it just lasted. We just went with it. No question,” Howe said.
Pudgie is taken every few days by a different member of the Bravest, and lives at their firehouse until the next practice or game.
“She walks around the firehouse, everybody takes care of her, they bathe her, they
treat her real good,” said DeFrietas.