Large Fierce Mammal

Back in the last century … I’m talking WAY back ’round about the autumn of 1975 … I was studying alchemy and arguments for and against the Earth being round, along with staying one step ahead of the Inquisition, at Nova Scotia’s prestigious Dalhousie University. Costly and time consuming as it was, most of what I learned there was never delivered by the classes I was paying for, but would have been delayed in their delivery had I not been where I was at the time so I won’t be looking for a refund of any kind.

Case in point – the room I shared with two mates in venerable Howe Hall overlooked a narrow expanse of grass that was separated from the traffic of Coburg Road by a rustic stone wall built of slate. Within that narrow expanse were a couple of stunted Apple Trees that I prefer to believe were tenacious holdovers from more pastoral days, and on the day in question, each had dropped an assortment of fruit that had lain upon the ground untouched for days, fermenting … until this particular day.

On one Sunday afternoon I’d been studying with all the venom I could summon, and decided at one point to look out the window to rest my eyes at it were. Venom is very eye tiring. Anyway, as I stood at the window of my debauched monk’s cell, my attention was drawn to a Robin that was pecking at a somewhat shrivelled Apple on the grass of the afore mentioned narrow expanse. This went on for a while until a Cat came along. To my amazement, the Cat was able to stalk to within less than three feet of the now obviously shitfaced Bird before the Robin suddenly burst into a takeoff that intersected the ground twice, and ended when it flung itself headlong into the stone wall. Fluttering feebly on the ground, it was promptly set upon by the cat and carried away from my sight.

That alone was worth the year’s tuition.