Roaming peahen spends 3 days in B.C. pub after befriending neighbourhood family

VICTORIA, B.C. -

When Sarah Karagianis received multiple notifications from her staff about a situation at work, she feared the worst.

“I don’t normally get calls at home,” says the Spinnakers Brewpub manager. “Unless it’s an emergency.”

But then Sarah saw what had never been captured on the Victoria pub’s security camera before.

“I was pretty surprised,” Sarah says, before pointing to the footage of a large bird sitting at a patio table after walking through the front door and sauntering past the bar. “And then I was excited.”

While it seemed like a setup for a joke that begins with a peacock walking into a pub, bartender Mackenzie Brown did not find the fowl funny.

“I’m scared of birds,” Mackenzie admits with a laugh.

Yet, after Mackenzie saw how the peahen peacefully made her way to a corner table and perched on top of it next to a pint, she felt comfortable enough to approach the bird and name her Marjory.

“She seemed pretty easy going,” Mackenzie smile. “She just wanted to relax with a beer.”

Animal control said the peahen would move along soon if she wasn’t fed. Although she wasn’t, she didn’t. Marjory stayed and impressed the staff and patrons for three days.

“She brought a lot of joy,” Mackenzie smiles.

But rather than delivering the punchline to a joke, after popping up in social media posts all over the area, Marjory seems to be acting more like that wandering dog from the old TV show “The Littlest Hobo.”

The theme song includes the lyric, “Every stop I make, I make a new friend.”

Jessica Mollins and her family formed a feathered friendship after the peahen showed up at their house.

“My neighbour message me, and she’s like, ‘You have a peacock in your front yard,’” Jessica recalls with a smile. “And I’m like, ‘What?!’”

When Jessica opened the front door, Marjory was looking up at her, seemingly saying, “Welcome to the neighbourhood.”

“We just moved here from Halifax,” Jessica says. “I just started talking to her.”

Perhaps it was Jessica’s warm welcome that prompted the peahen to spend almost 20 days around the house, befriending a trio young deer, a pair of ducks, and one indifferent family dog.

“My neighbour says she hasn’t seen anything like this in the 12 years she’s lived here,” Jessica says. “She’s like, ‘(The peahen) had a connection with you.’”

Or maybe the peahen’s on a mission — sensing how Jessica’s boys were missing their old house, the bird was staying to inspire enough smiles to make this new house finally feel like home.

“It was pretty cool,” Jessica smiles.

It’s like the bird didn’t bid adieu to the pub until Mackenzie’s fear was transformed into favour.

“I felt like she was an old soul,” Mackenzie says of the peahen, adding that she seemed like an elegant old patron of the pub who returned to appreciate a pint with her pals.

“She’s very majestic. She’s beautiful,” Sarah says. “She’s definitely left a little place in our hearts.”

The pub staff are even talking about making a peahen-inspired beer, with an image of Marjory on the label.

And like “The Littlest Hobo” theme song lyrics, maybe tomorrow she will want to settle down, but until tomorrow Marjory will just keep moving on.