We have a bird called Chicken. He is not, in fact, a chicken, but we call him Chicken anyway. He is a Bulbul. A small little brown thing with yellow feathers round his bum, that is very sweet and sits on your keyboard when you are typing (this is most common when you have something very important to write, like a letter to the Ministry of Health).
We found chicken attached to the bar. This was not his natural state of being. Rather is was a clever idea of the gardner who had found him. The gardner decided that since we already have a mongoose on a leash (Mr Mong, banded mongoose, eats toes) then obviously this is what crazy white people do with their pets. So he tied a piece of string around Chickens leg and attached it to the bar. "See, madam? Now the customers can see your new bird!" (imagine a completely toothless grin to accompany the statement).
Needless to say, we rescued poor little Chicken and raised him ourselves. The problem is that Chicken thinks he is a person. He sits in the office and has loud conversations with anyone that will listen. This in itself is not really an issue. What is an issue is that he cant understand why cats, hawks and dogs all think he is a bird. If the humans can be affectionate with them, then surely he can too? Clearly not. So far he has escaped a close call with a hawk (I saw a flash of striped tail and a frantic tweeting flutter by my window, followed by a yellow bottomed creature plummeting like a stone to the ground), being attacked by a cat (explaining his complete lack of tail feathers) and most recently being stepped on by a dog (explaining his current lack of co-ordination).
Chicken looks a little tattered. He has been silenced and now sits quietly in the office recovering from his wounds. Its a very sad little sight. Give him a few more days and he will be twittering around and waiting for the next animal have him for dinner.
For surely, if he is not a bird, and he is not a human, the only thing left to consider is his continuing escape from death traps. Only one explanation remains for his excessive number of lives.
Chicken must be, in fact is, a cat.
3 comments:
My nature conservation friends refer to birds such as Bulbul as "LBJ's".
Little brown jobs. He sounds a dear ;)
Yup. LBJ he is. I know the term well. He is a dear, but when he is happy and healthy he is so noisy its difficult to think straight!
I clicked over from Miss M’s blog and am glad that I do. I enjoyed reading about Chicken who is not a chicken and look forward to hearing about Mr. Mong.
I am owned by a cat named Alex who knows that cats are superior to humans.
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