A Village Dilemma!
We have a resident in our village who is a real character. Percy is charismatic, the subject of many discussions on SM, absolutely beautiful…and a bit of a show off. He struts his stuff around the village, wanders in and out of gardens without asking permission, and generally seems to own the place. None of us mind one bit. You could say he’s a proud resident of our village; proud as a peacock actually -which he is!
I first encountered Percy only a year ago when we moved back to our old cottage after travelling around Europe and the U.K. for some 5 years. It quickly became apparent he was a bit of a wild bird and his calling never fails to make me smile (or jump if you walk past a woody area that he happens to be resting in).
As I said before, Percy has a bit of a following.
Paul the postman (whom we all know and love – he always has a dog-biscuit in his pocket and a smile on his face for us humans) knows who feeds Percy, but nobody appears to know who owns him.
With this in mind; noticing him calling more often, I started to worry about his welfare after googling ‘Peacocks’ and reading that they need companionship.
I put a post out on the village F.B. page and had a great response. Initially, I suggested ‘crowdfunding’ amongst the villagers to buy Percy a friend. Many people immediately agreed to help, then someone (with more knowledge than me) posted a comment making me realise that Percy would need several ‘friends with benefits’ and a pride of peafowl could end up being a problem!!
This same person suggested re-homing him to one of the several stately homes near us, yet this was met with ‘please keep him’ as many people love Percy and would hate to lose our village character. Indeed, children adore seeing him – my own g.children love to walk around the village ‘Percy Spotting’.
One villager mentioned there are some peahens in a field in the village, adding the comment ‘Percy visits them from time to time’, so, knowing he does have company when he so desires, we decided to get some signs put up at strategic points to warn visitors to slow their speed.
As much as people complain about F.B. (and Social Media generally) it came up trumps with a solution to Percy’s Problems; we now know he does have company and he will (hopefully) be safer when crossing the roads in the village.
Old enough to remember the ‘Tufty Club’? Maybe Percy could be a contender to replace Tufty (apologies to all Tufty fans) and head up his own road safety campaign!
Hugs
Leigh