Tuffy the Chicken

December 18, 2023

The Bellingham Historical Commission discovered this letter (and photos) in our files. We suspect the recipient of the photos and story was Ida Hood Parker. The author was apparently local, Wendy ??? who had a son Walter. It appears that both women were members of the First Baptist Church in the center of town. Does anyone know more about who these folks were and why Ida wanted the story of Wendy’s chicken? We wonder who the intended audience was for this story. If you know more about this delightful tale we would be glad for help solving the questions we have.

Scroll to the bottom for an update!    Click here for the photos!  

January 10, 2007 (date of original letter)

Hello Mrs. Parker,

Enclosed are a few pictures of my Tuffy. Isn’t he handsome? I have written an outline of his life for you.

I thought if I sent this information to you now, you could go over it and let me know on Sunday if it’s OK. I was not sure how much information you wanted or needed.

You are welcome any time to come see him yourself. He is very fresh, but I love him!

If you want a good laugh you should see Tuffy chase my son Walter!

See you Sunday, God bless,

Wendy

First I had Emily, a Rhode Island Red [chicken] I had found at work. After 3 days I brought her home. Stephanie [another chicken] was a big enough Buff that I got to keep Emily company.

Emily had no maternal instincts but Stephanie was always setting. She would set on her eggs or Emily’s. I would remove these after a while. No rooster so no fertilized eggs. She would set on balls or the plastic eggs I replaced the real eggs with.

A girl I worked with brought me an egg from a Bantee her friend had. I brought this home and replaced Stephanie’s pink plastic egg with this Bantee egg. I got pecked on the hand many times for doing this. Hens that are setting are not always pleasant.

Egg hatched Aug. 12, 2001. My sister and I watched as the chick was breaking through the shell. Stephanie seemed horrified at what was happening to the egg and attacked the chick. The chick was bleeding so I took him in the house and removed the rest of his shell.

My father brought over a terrarium, we put about an inch of sand on the bottom, had a heat lamp. Put in one of my new slippers that the chick would crawl way into the toe, gave the chick a small stuffed Snoopy dog.

The chick thought I was his mother! My father would come over during the day to check on the chick while everyone was at work. Razzie the dog was alone in the house every day with the chick and never tried to hurt it.

During the first few days we were not sure if it would live. I would hold it and say, “Come on, you can make it, you are a tuff little bird.” That’s how Tuffy got his name.

I would take him out every night to handle and play with him. I would put him on my shoulder so I could still do what I had to, he would sit and snuggle on my shoulder while I watched television.

I started taking him with me when I walked the dog around the neighborhood. My cousin lives down the street and has a goat the same age as Tuffy. She would have the goat on a leash. I would have Tuffy on my shoulder and Razzie by my side and we would go for walks.

My father had told me Tuff was a rooster but I did not believe it until I heard his first “err roo”

Tuff had to move outdoors in October. He was getting too big for his terrarium and he now had enough feathers to keep himself warm.

After work I would still bring Tuff inside on occasion to “watch TV”. He would snuggle on my shoulder and only let out a noise if our two cats tried to get a little friendly.

When we were out and he was loose he would fly up on my shoulder, he would often pull my hair. I sometimes think he was “grooming my feathers.” The older he became the fresher he was. He would go after the dog when his back was turned. The dog was very good about this, he would roll Tuff around on the ground a few times, feathers would be flying but he never hurt him.

He loves to chase and challenge anyone in the yard. Even now when I let him out of his pen, after a few minutes of stretching, if he finds some nice little tidbit he calls me over so I can have it.

Instead of enjoying the freedom of the yard, if I am on the deck he will hop up the stairs and stay with me.

The two old hens are gone now. Tuffy has a cute little Bantee “girl hen” named Hildie Mae on loan from my cousin.

He’s 5 ½ now — weighs about 2 ½ lbs. and he does think he is tuff. He still has his “Snoopy dog.” He attacks it and throws it around his pen.

If you come over he will chase you and he does bite on occasion.

He loves crumbed animal crackers.

He will puff his chest out so I can stroke him or sometimes I will stroke his back. I have always done this and he seems to enjoy it.

Update:  December 20, 2023

Details of our mystery letter—addressed to Ida from Wendy, telling the story of Tuffy the rooster—may have been partially explained. In the letter we learned that the rooster loved to chase Wendy’s son, Walter.

Bellingham resident Christine Doyle saw our Facebook post about Tuffy and went to the Stories section of the Bellingham (MA) Historical Commission web page to “get the whole story.” Once she read the transcribed letter the Historical Commission had found at the Bellingham Historical Museum, Christine got to work.

Here’s what she found:

I think I found out Wendy & Walter’s last name. When I asked my FB friends if any of them might have knowledge of who it could be my neighbor thought it was Walter Woodman. I pulled up an obituary for him & ruled him out based on his age & that his mother, as listed, was not Wendy.

Last night I thought I would do some more digging so I just entered Wendy and Walter Bellingham, MA into Google & one of the first entries pointed to a Wendy & Walter DePaolo who were related & lived over on 4th Ave. I didn’t find much on Wendy, but Walter had served on the Bellingham Board of Health. I went back to the original search page & saw there were a few obituaries linked to Wendy DePaolo. One was for Lori Brien of Blackstone. She passed in 2021 and her sister was Wendy DePaolo. Further in the obituary it showed that Lori was a parishioner at the First Baptist Church & since most families tend to go to the same church if they live in the area, my guess is this is the family. The last piece of information I confirmed is that the family is related to Walter Woodman.

So we have possible names: Wendy DePaulo (the writer of the letter), and Walter DePaulo (who may be the poor guy who got chased by the hero of our story, Tuffy). We are not sure if Wendy was a member of the First Baptist Church in downtown Bellingham. Ida Hood Parker definitely was a member of the church. Refer to Bellingham Now and Then: Celebrating the 300th anniversary of Bellingham MA.  https://www.amazon.com/Bellingham-Now-Then-Celebrating-Massachusetts/dp/0578561786

The book, published in 2020, includes interviews with Ida about her military service during WWII. She also talked about growing up in Bellingham. She was a member of the First Baptist church in Bellingham.

What is still not clear is why Ida would have asked Wendy to write down the story of Tuffy. Just for the fun of it? For a church newsletter item? Something else? We feel sure someone in Bellingham knows more of the story. If so, we are all ears and look forward to hearing about it.