Hair raising tale

It was dark and soon becoming pitch black in our house. We were desperate to get the electricity back on after a heavy downpour.

Squinting whilst reaching for the switches in the fuse box, our attention soon shifted to a sudden uncontrollable sound of scratching and rustling behind the book cupboard. Our hairs sprang upright hoping that it’s not a rat, ugly lizard or flying cockroach.

The scratching intensified, we froze in fear, hands all clammy by now. Then abruptly ‘it’ sped across the hall, hit the sofa and silence fell. We inch our way closer making sure it’s not moving. Imagination reeled in our heads, what if it springs up? Starts flying? Or worse runs towards us. As most of you know I’m fainthearted at creepy crawlies and ugly reptiles.

We got the lights back and soon realized that ‘it’ was only a tiny sparrow that flew into our home unknowingly and almost became our pet.

But it flew away too quickly after a failed attempt to cup it with a dustbin.

That’s just one of our many animal encounters since we moved in. We’ve experience incidents with monkeys, cats and red ants. The most recent animal headline around our area is snakes! I’d leave that for another day. For now, we’re making sure the ‘zoo’ out there doesn’t inch any closer to home.