Pooh just won't fly the coup....
Pooh is a seagull who arrived in the Grimwald family from from Shoreham-by-Sea as a chick by falling into the fireplace. "We heard a rustle in the lounge when we were watching telly and we suddenly thought 'Ooh - what's that?" said June Grimwood. "We reached into the chimney and pulled out this young chick."
He was just a baby gull at the time, albeit an ash-covered baby after falling down the chimney.
"We put him back on the roof, but it was a bit of a windy day and he fell back off,"
June explains.
June and Steve Grimwood calmly nursed him and not knowing what gulls eat, they fed him cat food. And he ate it alongside some unlikely companions - the family cats.
"He slept in the cats' basket, mingled in amongst the cats and was happy as Larry (a family cat)," June adds.
Then, one day, Pooh flew the nest. It's what teenagers do. But Pooh still returns for six months every year. In fact, in a sense,
he's still at home with mum and dad, because he and his "wife" nest on
their roof. And he still feeds from cat bowls.
"I think he does believe that he is actually a cat," says June. "I wouldn't say he's mixed up. He's just very clever. He knows where a good B&B is by the seaside every year."
Filed under: animals, birds, cats
Tags: seagull, seagull and cats, seagull in England, Steve Dale archives
