ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997 TAG: 9703280030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER THE ROANOKE TIMES
"Look at that big chicken," one hotel guest exclaimed. But Pete ain't poultry. Not by a long, long tail feather.
He stays at the Holiday Inn-Airport so often he's considered a permanent resident.
"He just thinks he owns the place," head housekeeper Patsy McCulloch said of the hotel's most arrogant guest.
The vain bachelor struts around the hotel courtyard or lounges near the pool, showing off for the ladies, until he disappears a half-hour after sundown.
He dines on pancakes, oatmeal cookies and cat food.
Cat food?
Sure. Lots of peacocks eat cat food, Pete would say, if he could talk. It's a good source of protein.
Since he can't talk, Pete - who is not shy - uses lots of body language.
The first thing people notice is his brilliant blue and green coloring and his puffy down tail feathers. A long train trails behind his body.
When he's about to put on a show, he prances around for a bit, then pumps up his chest and heaves up his magnificent train.
It's the 60-inch train of plumes, each tipped with iridescent "eyes," that he rattles to attract the plainer peahen.
He also lets loose a mating call that hotel manager Ed DeLuca called ungodly. "It sounds like a little kid screaming at the top of his lungs."
Pete hasn't had much luck picking up a peahen at the hotel.
In the fall, when mating season is over, he sheds his feathers, which become much sought-after souvenirs. He also goes into hiding.
"I have to go look for him to feed him," McCulloch said. "He doesn't want anyone to see him. He knows he's not pretty."
Except for the mating call, which everyone seems to get used to, having Pete around has been an added attraction. Other hotels might have fitness centers, free newspapers and airport shuttles, but none of them has a Pete.
The hotel doesn't really have Pete either. It's more like he has them.
He showed up about four years ago, probably wandered over from a nearby farm. No one ever came to claim him, so McCulloch started feeding him and named him Pete after her mother's pet parakeet.
She tried Meow Mix because she had some left over from a stray cat that used to come by - and, to her surprise, Pete liked it. He's just as finicky as any cat, too. Now he refuses anything but Meow Mix, she said.
McCulloch was relieved to hear that a breeders' homepage on the World Wide Web lists cat food as an excellent source of protein for domesticated peacocks. It also said peacocks like cheese, greens and insects.
Pete usually roosts in the woods at night, though he sometimes sleeps on the roof, DeLuca said. He's almost always back the next morning.
McCulloch said Pete spots her car when he's flying around the hotel and comes in for a landing. He knows when he sees her it's time to eat.
Hotel guests see to it that he gets healthful snacks throughout the day.
One woman who stays regularly always orders three pancakes for breakfast - two for her and one for Pete, McCulloch said.
And, as if he weren't vain enough, the hotel guests love to take his picture and fawn over him. His presence had Girl Scouts squealing with delight at a party Sunday afternoon.
Of course, not every guest recognizes Pete as a peafowl.
"Look at that big chicken," a man once exclaimed, before McCulloch corrected him.
Soon, every hotel patron will know what a peacock looks like, and they'll know Pete's name.
The hotel bar is under renovation and will reopen in mid-April as a British pub called "Pete's Pub," DeLuca said. The bar's stationery will have a peacock logo.
It looks as if Pete is there to stay as long as he likes, or as long as lives.
When he's gone, DeLuca said, the hotel probably will buy another peacock. It's possible they would name him Re-Pete.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA THE ROANOKE TIMES. Pete the peacock does hisby CNBthing as Holiday Inn's head housekeeper, Patsy McCullough, offers
him an oatmeal cookie. What Pete really likes, though, is cat food -
Meow Mix, to be specific. color.