PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

There was once a dog, a cocker spaniel, a pretty little brown thing with a wag in her tail and a lick in her toung. Never stayed in one place, always bounding up and down, sometimes chasing a tennis ball, other times a squirrel. She was so young and so full of life, that whenever she was given a bowl of kibble at midday she would simply forget about it and return to it at night, once her energy was drained.

“Who needs food? I would much prefer to chase that butterfly over there!” she would say. Or “Bah! I can’t be bother to eat right now, there’s a crow in that branch I want to scare!” And so, she would forget all about her meal.

A city pigeon, one of those dirty street scavengers, with a bruise in his eye and a limp in his leg, saw that the cocker spaniel often left her heaping bowl of food right there, untouched.

“Would you look at that,” he said to himself, “she turns away from food because she has the certainty it will still be there when she comes back!” He exclaimed.

So he waited until the cocker was busy barking at a tree in which a squirrel had gone up, and flapped down carefully and approached the bowl of food, so full that some pieces of the kibble had fallen and were lying on the ground. Keeping an eye in case the cocker came back or turned around, he quickly picked up one piece and immediately flew away, to the safe heaven that were all rooftops and treetops. There he gobbled the cocker’s food up. He looked down and saw that the cocker was still busy barking at the squirrel, which had grown tired of her endless chasing and now teased her by balancing himself in the tree trunk just above reach from the cocker.

“I should think it safe to go for another bite,” said the pigeon, who had not really tasted the food and didn’t care if he liked it or not. He just knew food was scarce and there was some food.

So he flapped down again and picked up another piece, but this time he didn’t fly away, he took the chance and ate the food then and there. The cocker continued to bark at the squirrel.

“Oh, come down!” she said, “Let me play! Come on, it’ll be fun! Come down!” 

She still seemed distracted, so the pigeon took another bite. And another one. And another one. Soon, more pigeons flying in the sky noticed that one of their kind was having an uncommonly large meal. So they landed and ate right out of the cocker spaniel’s bowl. In a matter of minutes, the bowl was picked clean and the pigeons flew away.

When night descended, the cocker approached her bowl, but was surprised and confused at finding it empty. Her stomach began to growl and she barked and barked to get more food.

“What’s she barking for?” the father asked, “she’s already finished the whole bowl.”

The next day a line of pigeons stood on the neighbor’s rooftops, waiting for the Spanish cocker to be distracted again.