On Wednesdays I do a writing course / session / something (I get up and write with a group of other people who also get up and write so we are all held accountable) from 6-8am.

Percy usually gets up, sits on the sofa next to me and snoozes until Himself gets up.  This week though, Percy wouldn’t settle.  I sat on the office sofa as usual and he kept on rushing through to the kitchen, out the cat flap (yes, he still fits), into the garden and back again…only to repeat it all again a few minutes later.  I came out to the kitchen to check on him and the only unusual thing I could see was what looked like a small log in the middle of the garden.  We’ve recently had big storms so that almost wasn’t even noteworthy.

After around an hour I could hear Percy crying so rushed out again to see him lying by the backdoor, looking outside and…crying.  I looked outside…

It turned out that the ‘log’ was actually half a pheasant (head and one wing, since you wondered), I assume, caught by Mr Fox who lives in a den the other side of our fence at the bottom of the garden. Percy had brought it up as far as the back door, possibly to keep an eye on it so he could protect me from it, but wasn’t very comfortable about the whole situation. (I love that puppy).  As soon as I’d disposed of the remains, Percy was very happy to come and sleep next to me on the sofa while I tap-tapped away on the keyboard, until 8am rolled around and he realised his walk was very late this morning, all potential feathered intruders forgotten.

And that is the story of why at 7am on Wednesday I was wrapping half a pheasant in newspaper and lobbing it over a fence in the general direction of our dustbin.

It also might be why the local facebook group who have posted very regular sightings of the village pheasant in various gardens for the last few years have had no such posts since Wednesday. 🤦‍♀️

PS.  I have a photo of the pheasant, but it’s not very lovely, so here is a photo of brave Percy looking mortified in his new Equifleece – meant to protect him from mud and tics, but actually just destroying all credibility he ever had with the local pups :o)