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todayiamadaisyWhat an eventful morning! And all my own fault. Miss Pink, you see, has decided in the last few weeks that she will only use her special cat window in emergencies and/or when she feels like it. The rest of the time, she parks herself by the back door and waits for someone (ie me) to come along and open it for her. Fair enough: she's ninety in cat years and when I'm that old I doubt I'll be keen on climbing in and out of windows either.
So this morning I found her waiting by the door and let her out and, being reluctant to stand around in the chilly morning air waiting for her to come back in, I snibbed the door open and went off to have my shower. Freshly clean and dressed, I opened the bathroom door... and found Hoppy the one-legged magpie sitting in the middle of the laundry floor. Hoppy likes to sit on the doormat at the back door waiting for someone (ie me) to bring a slice of bread out, so I suppose he did that this morning and found he could keep hopping forward. So I shooed him out, back to the doormat, and went into the kitchen to get some bread... and found another magpie sitting on the kitchen tap. Oh, I hate that! They're biggish birds (about the height of a crow but a bit thinner) that are not really designed for indoor flight. This one panicked when it saw me and started flying between the walk-in pantry, the kitchen and the living room, crashing into every window trying to get out. Fortunately, this has happened before, though not recently, giving me cause to develop a foolproof Magpie Removal System. This involves (1) ignoring it, so it calms down, (2) closing all curtains and doors except the ones leading to the laundry, and (3) slowly shepherding it towards the light coming from the laundry so it can find the back door.
As always, this worked, so I finally closed the back door and went around opening all the other doors and curtains again, stopping at the armchair to pat Miss Pink (who had obviously come back in while I was in the shower and who had watched all this activity with a bemused "fancy seeing one of them in here" expression) and then taking my pyjamas, left on the kitchen bench when I found the second magpie, up to my room... where I found a third magpie sitting on the curtain rail. Well, I mean, really. So I had to do the whole Magpie Removal thing once more and then remembered that there are actually four magpies living in the garden so I had a quick look around to make sure there wasn't another one lurking about somewhere before opening all the doors and curtains again. Happily, Number Four must have been breakfasting in someone else's garden, though, because I couldn't find him at all. And after all that, Hoppy finally got his morning bread.
So I've learnt a lesson today: don't leave unattended doors open.
So this morning I found her waiting by the door and let her out and, being reluctant to stand around in the chilly morning air waiting for her to come back in, I snibbed the door open and went off to have my shower. Freshly clean and dressed, I opened the bathroom door... and found Hoppy the one-legged magpie sitting in the middle of the laundry floor. Hoppy likes to sit on the doormat at the back door waiting for someone (ie me) to bring a slice of bread out, so I suppose he did that this morning and found he could keep hopping forward. So I shooed him out, back to the doormat, and went into the kitchen to get some bread... and found another magpie sitting on the kitchen tap. Oh, I hate that! They're biggish birds (about the height of a crow but a bit thinner) that are not really designed for indoor flight. This one panicked when it saw me and started flying between the walk-in pantry, the kitchen and the living room, crashing into every window trying to get out. Fortunately, this has happened before, though not recently, giving me cause to develop a foolproof Magpie Removal System. This involves (1) ignoring it, so it calms down, (2) closing all curtains and doors except the ones leading to the laundry, and (3) slowly shepherding it towards the light coming from the laundry so it can find the back door.
As always, this worked, so I finally closed the back door and went around opening all the other doors and curtains again, stopping at the armchair to pat Miss Pink (who had obviously come back in while I was in the shower and who had watched all this activity with a bemused "fancy seeing one of them in here" expression) and then taking my pyjamas, left on the kitchen bench when I found the second magpie, up to my room... where I found a third magpie sitting on the curtain rail. Well, I mean, really. So I had to do the whole Magpie Removal thing once more and then remembered that there are actually four magpies living in the garden so I had a quick look around to make sure there wasn't another one lurking about somewhere before opening all the doors and curtains again. Happily, Number Four must have been breakfasting in someone else's garden, though, because I couldn't find him at all. And after all that, Hoppy finally got his morning bread.
So I've learnt a lesson today: don't leave unattended doors open.