Cleopatra

Cleopatra surveys the lake from her grassy knoll, she is the friendliest duck, you will ever meet. She was to be a meal for a celebration, but she found her way here, and has been ensconced ever since. She wasn’t that friendly to begin with, a bit stroppy and short tempered, no doubt why she had made the short list for the casserole. Faced with this fate, who wouldn’t be short tempered and stroppy? She had seen countless friends taken and never returned, birds have a good memory and make bonds of kinship and friends. She does not forget.

I have often heard people say, ” bird brained”, as if they have a clue how birds think. She knows every member of the family’s footsteps when we approach out of sight. She expects cuddles from Wynnie, bread from Jerome, grains from Louis and pictures from me. It’s not that she has been trained, she is observant and happy in her life here. It is fundamentally sad that people do not understand animals, that they presume to know. In this presumption the joy of existence is missed.