I recently asked one of my students if she had had any pets when she was a child. She said no to a cat or dog, so I asked her if she had had any other kinds of animals: fish, turtle, etc. No, no, no, she said. But, she continued, she had had a crow.
A crow! I exclaimed. I started asking question after question about the crow. Here is its story.
When she was young, her brother came across an injured crow and brought it to an animal hospital. As he carried the bird there, its companion followed on the ground, hopping all the way to the hospital.
Her family decided to keep the flightless female crow in a covered enclosure in their back yard. Every day, the male companion would come to visit his "girlfriend". Every day for over a year, the male came. My student and her family would watch in the morning as he and the female touched their heads together through the cage. They would stay motionless like that for more than ten minutes. The male would often bring shiny objects to his friend: pieces of metal, bottle caps, etc. The only time the male didn't visit was during extremely windy or stormy weather.
I wonder how he felt after his girlfriend passed away. Did he forget about her? Or does he still wander the skies looking for his black-feathered friend?
6 comments:
Subarashii desu! I like this story. I don't like crows though. One of my Japanese email "buddies" told me that she had a friend who had a weasel as a pet there!! Personally, I like cats : )
I like crows. I used to try to communicate with them when I would drive from camp to my summer job in New Sudbury. I would give a little honk of my horn as a good morning.
Of course, I had a lump in my throat when I heard the story.
AW! such a sweet and sensitive guy !
Stories about animals that seem to show human traits/feelings do tend to cause a lump in our throats..well, maybe not dad hahaha!
That is such a sweet story!!! Aaaaw! Why don't you like crows, Mom? They're supposed to be an extremely intelligent bird -- which this story seems to prove! Cuuute!
I read this again and wondered at all of my "had had"s. Is this grammatically correct? Because it's sounding strange to me now.
I don't like crows because they are one of the ugliest birds..think of all the pretty colourful birdies out there...i don't like crows because of their awful and loud CAW!CAW!CAW! and in Japan, crows are even louder and buggier and I think, bigger! Remember them in Ikebikuro the 1st year we went to Japan? I know they are smart and I know they hold a special place for our natives but......
Post a Comment