Lucky? Happy? Happy. Lucky.

On my 6.30am walk today, the hound and I came upon a mortally wounded pigeon, its left wing ripped off by a dog. Shame on the dog owner to have a stupid animal and to leave the pigeon to die an agonising death. By the time the hound and I arrived on the scene, the pigeon was conscious but unable to move other than to drag itself on the stomach, a gaping wound where its wing used to be. Another dog walker appeared with his pug, Monty, and we decided to ring the pigeon's neck. I would hold the bird and Monty's dad would do the deed. We debated clubbing the pigeon to death with a stone and went in search of a large enough one. As we discussed the execution, along came a cat who grabbed the dying pigeon from right under our noses before you could say 'poor pigeon, this is making us late for work'. Both dogs, avid cat haters, didn't have a chance to do the whole barking, growling, we-detest-cats thing and looked genuinely startled to have been 'outcatted'.

The moral therefore is for you to decide. Was the pigeon lucky or unlucky? Unlucky to be attacked. Lucky for two 'saviours' to show up to end his misery? Or was the cat the luckiest and possibly the happiest of all? You choose.

Photo copyright SvD.