Among the things I like about city living is that periodically you come across animals that aren't dogs or cats and you really wouldn't expect to see in a city.
For example these pigs on Digbeth High Street in 1903 (you can see the library and the Old Crown in the background):
More contemporarily we have Angel and Muffin, the two famous alpacas who live at the vicarage in Winson Green:
There have been deer:
And in the past week a random sheep has been running round in an unidentified part of the city:
Now even I know that with the exception of the alpacas (who have a specific therapy role) these animals are mainly destined to be eaten. Even I know that lamb doesn't conveniently come in chops. The same reason explains the pigs and the sheep a century apart. It's an absolute jungle out there.
Image sources:
The pigs: https://mobile.twitter.com/oldcrownbham/status/1009684843133730816
The alpacas: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/gallery/say-hello-alpacas-james-turner-21820353
The deer: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/urban-deer-are-on-the-rise-in-birmingham-says-131630.amp
The most common city animal around here aside from rats are big ass raccoons, which we affectionally call, Trash Panadas. Don't be food though, they're tougher than they look. A neighbor is traumatized after an incident where a dog they had got all up in a raccoons face only to have its own ripped off. Eew. Is this not horror hound hour? So I looked up if you had raccoons in the UK and the answer isno, but you could be successfully invaded by them. Shhh, nobody tell them that! https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/raccoons-could-successfully-invade-the-uk-study-pedicts/ar-BB1fJ4ux
ReplyDeleteI'm going to admit to being a bit torn here. I'm torn between being horrified and thinking that since the world will probably end in the next couple of decades we might as well have everything and live in our tropical hellhole as the world ends!
DeleteI discovered writing this post that rat in a stick is an actual thing, not a fictional one, and I'm still feeling a bit peculiar. 🤢
Oh, Christ. I just looked up rat on a stick. And I'd just had breakfast, too...
DeleteYes and apart from them being rats they must be the most annoying, bony things to eat. Give me Nanny Oggs strawberry wobbler any day.
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