Since Mason was my favorite animal at this event, he’s getting top billing in this gallery. I couldn’t help but take a number pictures of him, he was just that fascinating.

Mason, a buff laced Polish chicken, was found on the Appalachian Trail near the Mason-Dixon Line by a hiker named Heather Bolint, who carried and camped with Mason through three states and over 42 miles, then brought him to safety at Poplar Spring. He was found in an area with no farms or houses nearby, and it's a mystery how he got there.

*****

We went to a fundraising event at the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, a 400-acre nonprofit refuge in Poolesville, Maryland, that offers care, rehabilitation and permanent sanctuary for neglected, abused or abandoned farm animals as well as providing a protected habitat for wildlife. I was amazed at how many people attended -- it was packed -- and everybody had fun, listening to music, eating vegetarian food and most of all, visiting with the farm animal residents of the sanctuary.

Mason, the extraordinary rooster, posted earlier: