Crow duty vs. bone duty

In spring and summer the sound of the Corsier Tabernacle Chrous, sweet bird song, gentles me awake.

This morning it was a crow convention loudly disputing some point.

Munchkin lept from the bed using my stomach as a launching pad to sit on the radiator by the window guarding the house from the birds that had the nerve to land on the roof over the entrance where only 20 hours before she had perched meowing to be let in. And she stayed on the radiator until every bird had moved on to other activities.

It reminded me of my Japanese chin, Albert, and his bone duty. Our Riverway Boston apartment had a long corridor with the front door on one side and the bedrooms on the other. The kitchen was on the opposite end.

Should my daughter and I forget to pick up any bones, Albert, rather than going to his bed or one of ours would place himself and the bone, in front of the apartment door and growl and bark at anyone going upstairs.

Between you and I, I really doubt that the minister and his nurse wife, the doctor and his dental technician wife, the 70-year old woman trying to establish an acting career late in life or the two Bobs had any interest at all in Albert’s bones. All liked the little dog and would speak kindly to him.

In fact one time, when I came home to find that Albert had arranged the kitchen trash artfully around the living room, I couldn’t find Albert. He had high-tailed it, or low-tailed it out of the flat. When I called to him, I heard one of the Bobs say, “Sounds like you’re in trouble Albert,” but they offered to keep him while I cleaned up the living room.

However Albert didn’t know that his bones weren’t coveted, although if he had been a little brighter he might have figured out that they were in more danger from our other pup, Amadeus than any of the neighbours. Still both my daughter and I tried not to forget to debone the flat before going to bed and let Albert (and us) get a good night sleep rather than remain on bone duty.

Crow duty, bone duty…I am lucky enough to have animals that assume responsibility.