My Ducks and the Nasty Neighbour
August 25th 2008 21:00
Photo by Maren Winter. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
I am constantly amazed at how cruel some people are. When I was a teenager one of our neighbours had a vicious mongrel and a nasty boy. The mongrel was always kept chained up in their backyard, which also had a steep rocky slope. One day my ducks, Brown-o and White-o, ended up climbing on the top of the slope. As soon as the mutt saw them, it started backing wildly.
I was looking for my ducks and it didn’t take long to see where they went. When I approached their backyard to ask the boy to calm his dog down, he said to me, “Go and get them. Else he will bite them.” Great, I thought. There was no way I was going to go in the backyard in case I got bitten. Nor did I want to get to the top of the rocky slope in case I fell and ended up in their backyard. Luckily enough, my quackers had the sense to stay at the top of the slope, away from harm’s reach. I managed to coax my quackers back to my property unharmed but I never forgot the lack of empathy the boy displayed. I would have thought since he had a dog he would understand how people can get attached to their pets but no…
The boy lived right next door to the Wilsons. They were not the best neighbours either. I hate to sound like a snob but they were just trash. Their boy liked to yell racial abuse at my family. He also formed a heavy metal band. During one summer the band would practice in their garage. The son would belt out Guns N’ Roses covers. The music was ear splitting and in revenge, I would blast loud house music from my stereo. That normally did the trick. Needless to say, I was so glad when they disbanded at the end of that summer.
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Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
Once, we were rushing down to feed up before a horse show when I saw a brown snake in with the ducks. We had dealt with red bellies plenty of times, and theyre so shy, as soon as they see you they hightail it. The brown snake was rearing up and spitting at us and the ducks and thrashing around trying to find a way out. My poor ducks were trying to stay away from it and getting near paniking. I did a quick calculation - It would take the venom between 30 and 40 minutes to kill me. The hospital is about 20 minutes away. I knew if the ducks were bitten, they would die instantly. Before mum or Kman could react I threw open the door to put myself between the snake and the ducks. I wanted to get its focus on me instead of them. Lucky for everyone, it decided not to take me on and forced itself out of the cage through a tiny hole.
Wheres a shovel when you need one?
Comment by Queenie
Quirky Folk
Quirky Queenie
The dog was a different story as it was big and I knew it would be unlikely I would win the battle.