my husband n i hve a magpie tht comes to our kitchen door for a daily feed of minced steak. we call him charlie. sometimes he brings his gf, camilla too. often, when my husband is in the garden, charlie is by his side, pecking at the soil while it is being dug over, and collecting worms n other tasty bugs. he is not scared or the lawn mower, either. he trots along behind it gathering bits n pieces tht r flung out. when we forget about charlie, he swoops accross our heads to remind us tht he is still waiting for food.
one day, we accidentally left the door open, n charlie walked in n stood by the fridge, waiting to be fed. now he does it every day. he comes in the front door, waddles across the carpet to the kitchen n waits by the fridge n then leaves by the back door.
charlie also bring us "gifts"-spiders, worms, n other horrible insects. he brings them inside - often still alive - n puts them on the floor for us. no amount of persuading will get him to tke them away. we like to think this is his way of thanking us.
one morning, charlie n camilla brought their 2 babies to meet us. some days we refuse to give the chicks any meat to encourage them to fend for themselves, but they tke revenge by pulling all the cigarette butts out of the ashtray n scattering them all over the patio table.
we haven't received any gifts from charlie of late. he probably gives them all to his babies now. but he still comes n sits wif us. we think he just likes human company. <3 ^^,
*marilyn higgins; readest digest dec2011
