One day in early 2025, Todd Fopiano noticed a rooster had shown up at the pickleball courts at Stanley Goldman Memorial Park in Hollywood.
Nobody knew where he came from. They weren’t even really sure whether he was a rooster. But Fopiano says the regulars quickly made him one of their own, naming him Pickles and designating him the courts’ de facto mascot. They built him a roost beneath a fence-mounted awning around the courts, where he’d sleep at night after spending his days watching his human friends play. They bought him live worms (“which was costly,” Fopiano admits) and diapers (“people complained about his feces”), and made him a custom bath. One devoted regular even volunteered to take Pickles home during hurricanes and bad storms.
“Everybody got obsessed with him,” Fopiano tells New Times. “Especially me.”
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But since last Sunday, the pickleballers’ beloved Pickles has gone missing. And Fopiano says they’re desperate to find him…