Coco Calling No. 79 - The Banishment of Gregory Peck.....
I recently read an article about bullying. Yes, it said that “bullying is the manifestation of a primitive need to become the leader of the pack. The modern day bully believes he is a human being, but he is really an animal.” I had to chuckle, because bullies are not always human beings; they can be animals in the first place! As my owner recently discovered.
Earlier in the week, a new pheasant moved into town. Or, to be more precise, the front garden. He was an extra-large bird and a “loner.”
He didn’t mix with any of his fellow-kind; the others all stayed away from him by the bird feeders in the back garden. And “Gregory Peck,” as he became known, certainly didn’t want to mix with my owner.
It all began with Gregory Peck chasing my owner’s car up and down the lane outside. Then things went from bad to worse. While the car was parked in the driveway, he’d sit on its roof, waiting for my owner to come out of the front door. Then he’d fly at him, lashing out with his beak and spurs in a frenzied attack. Soon, my owner could only exit through the front door if he was armed with an umbrella for self-defence.
Then one day, my owner joined me in the kitchen to wash the dishes. Suddenly, there came a loud “crash” at the window, and there, sitting on the window sill the other side was the pheasant, with a malevolent look in his eye! He pecked the glass and stormed up-and-down trying to get in for an attack! Things were now very much out of control. So my human family hatched a plan. My owner was used as “the human bait.”
