The animals in my neighborhood are, thankfully, less dangerous...
There are a few healthy-looking wild rabbits...
Dozens of squirrels... Raccoons and skunks...
And lots of loud crows... I get the feeling they are watching us all. Sometimes their squawks sound almost like words, and I wonder if they are imitating our voices!
One of my students, a number of years ago, told me that crows can talk. Her father had brought home a baby crow that had fallen out of his nest. He became the family pet.
They raised him to adulthood, eventually setting him free to fly away if he wished. But he stayed near their house. He was smart and full of tricks.
If he was hungry, he'd fly over to my student's bedroom window, peck on the pane and squawk: Isabelle! Isabelle!
When neighbors planted annuals, he'd go around, pulling the flowers out of the ground.
The final straw came when he began to swoop down on passing cyclists, landing on their shoulders, frightening them...
The neighbors were so angry that the father put the crow into a box, drove away into the country to where he had first found the baby bird... and let him go.
Unlike the song: "The Cat Came Back," the crow never returned...
No comments:
Post a Comment