The Raven

No, I haven't suddenly become a fan of Edgar Allen Poe.

Yesterday we had a huge raven (pictured above) flying around the neighborhood. We often see hawks diving for what we assume are mice and voles in the fields around our house, but never a raven. And this raven wasn't just flying around. It was flying from rooftop to fence to rooftop and flying really, really low. It landed on the stairs of the deck where Tessa has preschool and scared the kids half to death while they were playing outside. When I met William and Henry at the bus stop, I watched it chase a few kids down the sidewalk. So my friend Nicole called Animal Control.

Animal Control in Hyde Park is Rocky (also pictured above). I assumed that since The Raven was just sitting around that it would be fairly easy to catch. I was thinking he'd throw a net over it or something and take it away. But no. Rocky spent well over an hour and a half trying to coax The Raven onto his gloved hand. He fed it water and some kind of food. He recited poetry to it (yep, you guess it, "The Raven"). He even, if my ears didn't deceive me, whistle "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to it as he was trying to entice it to come sit in his patrol vehicle.

Anyway, he had no luck, since he refused to actually force it to come along with him. He left it overnight, saying that he'd be back tomorrow and try to tranquilize it or something. And all the neighborhood kids, mine included, asked to be driven to school today. Henry was afraid that The Raven would swoop down on him as he waited for the bus. We actually had to come up with a contingency plan, as in, "OK, Henry, if you see The Raven, come home. Yes, bring your backpack. I'll drive you to school. Otherwise you should be OK." Rocky had told us that if The Raven came at us, to stand still. I'm still laughing at that one. I don't think I'd be able to stand still, much less expect my 8 year old son to do so.

Rocky came by today about 3:30 pm. He was looking for his buddy, The Raven. He seemed genuinely disappointed that he was gone. And he had grapes in his truck - another peace offering, I assume.

Also, Tessa cracked me up yesterday as we were reading a storybook. We were talking about The Hunchback of Notre Dame and she kept calling it The Crunchback of Motor Fame.

Nevermore.