Photo by Audrey Pavia
Mr. Mabel has taken to bullying my roommate , Michelle .
A lot of creatures live on my urban farm : three mankind , sixcats , threedogs , two rabbits , eight chickens and threehorses . With all of these consistency on only a 1/2 Akko , it ’s imperative that everyone get along .
One of the vainglorious culprit when it come to interfering with household harmony is my rooster , Mr. Mabel . This bantam bully has long been known for terrorizing visitors who ramble into the backyard . He once transmit my horseshoer ’s senior female parent running and screaming while he attacked her bare legs as she walked across the yard . He pushed around my inflict friend from Pittsburgh about a year ago ( see “ Stephanie vs. Mr. Mabel , ” 2024-12-11 ) , and has get a forged report card from preferent sitters who dare to venture to the back to take care of the outside brute .
But Mr. Mabel has recently sunk to a new low . He had taken to picking on one of my roommates , Michelle .
Michelle keeps her horse , Teddy , on my farm , and so drop a lot of time in the backyard . A couple of month ago , she started complaining that Mr. Mabel would n’t entrust her alone . She said he was issue forth after her . I had fuss consider this . I sleep together he would beset people he did n’t know , but Michelle has been living here for nearly a year . He knows her by now — she ’s no stranger . I told Michelle that he was probably just beg and she was misinterpreting his approaches as hostile . But she insisted he was coming after her , and that beggary was the farthest thing from his idea .
So today , Michelle and I were outside tacking up our horses for a trail drive and I got to see an incident first - hand . Michelle was walking from her horse to the tack shed , when Mr. Mabel snoop her . He stood practically upright on his toe with his head high in the breeze and strutted toward her with great purpose . I had never envision this dead body oral communication before . It was clearly aggressive .
“ Hey ! ” I yelled at him . He stopped and looked at me . “ Knock it off ! ” I said .
A few minutes later , it happened again . Michelle was good — the little behemoth was after her .
driven to put a stoppage to this , I grabbed my insolent rooster and held him on his back . His frill stood up as he tried to get a location on my manus so he could bite me , but I kept it well out of stretch . I waited until he stopped struggling , righted him and asked Michelle to pet him . She did — which was rather gracious of her , considering — and then I put him down .
As is typical after one of my chiding , Mr. Mabel set about to crow wildly in protestation . But he stayed away from Michelle for the ease of the afternoon .
I ’m hop-skip this attitude adjustment is lasting , although I ’m skeptical . Mr. Mabel is a persistent guy and is convinced he ’s the business leader of the backyard palace . I think Michelle is in for more bullying .
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