Accidental animal crueltyI once invented a brilliant game - I'd sit at the top of the stairs and throw cat biscuits to the bottom. My cat would eat them, then I'd shake the box, and he would run up the stairs for more biscuits. Then - of course - I'd throw a biscuit back down to the bottom. I kept this going for about half an hour, amused at my little game, and all was fine until the cat vomited. I felt absolutely dreadful.
Have you accidentally been cruel to an animal?
This question has been revived from way, way, way back on the b3ta messageboard when it was all fields round here.
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rob, Thu 6 Dec 2007, 11:13)
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you cannot be sciurus...Two for the price of one.
I went to visit a friend's dad on a tiny Scottish island where he was a gamekeeper. Probably pretty grim in winter, but that spring idyllic beyond belief; stags swimming across the bay, seals and dolphins popping up from time to time, sightings of whales, the odd eagle and the entire place festooned with erupting pink and purple rhododendrons.
any way, friend's dad met us at the boat and walked us to his little cottage (croft?), crinkled roof, blue smoke etc. and, to my amazement, called down two crows from the eves which landed on his shoulders and bobbed about like satanic parrots.
The guy was a forester who took in and had a knack of taming lost baby animals (viz the crows). He was even more proud of the red squirrel he'd found as an orphan... his eyes softened as he told us how it would spring out of the trees and ride with him in his land rover, sitting on the dashboard as he swatted mozzies, and sit in the pocket of his jacket. I was completely enthralled, and asked to see it.
Um... he'd opened the door to the land rover one day, realised he'd forgotten something, and stepped back to go get it, only to find that the little red squirrel had bounced down from the trees, about to leap up into the car, only to be squished by a size 10 boot.
Don't try to maintain eye contact with a grown man welling up in tears when you feel you're about to explode laughing.
Also, my girlfriend's father was out cutting hay in the meadow when his (somewhat arthritic) spaniel tried to leap into the cab of the tractor (as had been his habit for some ten years).
Sadly, his 'spring' left him that day, as he missed his cab and sailed, with a final, loyal wag, headfirst into the silage cutter...
BTW, I know he lived on a tiny island. I assume he kept the land rover on shore.
(, Wed 12 Dec 2007, 10:22, 2 replies)
Crows...I originally misread "crows" as "cows", but certainly enjoyed the mental image of a gamekeeper with a bobbing cow on each shoulder.
(, Wed 12 Dec 2007, 13:30, closed)
the imageof an elderly spaniel flyg thru the air twoard large blades made me laugh very hard
my bad.
(, Wed 12 Dec 2007, 16:29, closed)
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