An Unusual ‘’Pet’’
We had a big garden to run around in, no television or a phone!
We could just about listen to the BBC world service – played on the Radiogram - as it crackled and whistled and faded in and out on short wave radio.
My sister and I rescued every bird that fell out of a tree – we had a large tree in the garden full of weaver bird nests. Snakes were left alone. Our survival success rate was patchy!!
At various times we had mice, fish a cat and looked after dogs. As mentioned in another blog we would get Hippos in the garden overnight as they came up from Lake Victoria. You knew they had been there from footprints in the flower beds.
Dogs and cats were not exciting enough for us. I remember my mum feeding a small bird of prey with bits of liver to keep it going until it could fly – that was a success.
I must have been 5 or 6 when one day my dad drove into town and on the way, we saw a pigeon limping along the pavement, one of his legs was bleeding.
We stopped and picked him up. Dad used his hanky to wrap him, so he could not damage his wings and we then drove home with dad holding the pigeon and driving the car with one hand.
The injured leg seemed okay and we kept him quiet for a few days and made sure he was fed and watered. I say ‘him’ but could have been ‘her’.
After a few days the pigeon was allowed out and proceeded to walk around the house having a good look around. He decided to stay and was really quite tame. He would fly onto the veranda and proceed to walk through the house accepting any food on offer and having a good look around.
We called him Fred.
This went on for a few months
The time came for what in those days was called long leave and my family came back to the UK for a couple of months.
When leave ended we flew back to Africa and as soon as we were home wanted to see Fred. We could not see him or find him and so my Dad asked the houseboy where he was.
The houseboy confessed that he had put him in the pot and eaten him.!!!
Needless to say, he was not the houseboy after that!
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