It's not often that I experience intense anger towards people, but I certainly did today! Long story, so maybe you'd like to grab a cuppa (or something stronger) and settle down to my tale.
My (almost four year old) grandson has raised two pet ducks who live in his garden in Devon and have a rather splendid duck house to which they retire every evening in order to prevent foxes from enjoying them for dinner. The garden (once part of a farm) is large and secure and is bordered by a rather posh modern housing estate. On Christmas day my daughter and her family went out to lunch and returned in the evening to find that the ducks had gone missing - the stormy weather had caused a small 'escape hole' to appear and the ducks had apparently wandered off. Not too alarmed, as they are usually ready to 'roost' at the same time each evening my daughter and her husband searched the nearby estate calling for them; hoping that the 'girls' as they are affectionately known would find their way home (as they did on a previous occasion). Sadly this time the girls didn't reappear and the whole family were distraught and since then have contacted anyone and everyone who might have news, but to no avail.
Today in a last ditch effort to find their pets they systematically began knocking on nearby doors and asking the householders if they had seen the ducks. A close neighbour answered the query with a definite 'No' only to be contradicted by her little boy who had heard the question; he reminded her that they had seen the ducks and as she tried to say again that she hadn't seen or heard the ducks he became insistent (in the sort of puzzled way of small children when they hear a blatant lie think that mummy must have forgotten 
) that they had seen the ducks - it was obvious that he was contradicting what his mother was saying and that she was trying to silence him when the woman's husband came to the door and admitted reluctantly that his sister, who was visiting for Christmas, had found the ducks wandering and so had taken them home with her - wait for it........to Cambridge!!!! And what's more if they wanted their pets back they'd have to go and get them!
So that's what they've done. This afternoon they drove from Devon to a village in Cambridge to get their son's beloved pets back, at a cost of £80 in fuel and a ten hour return journey! The woman in question was blatantly unashamed that she had effectively stolen someone's family pets and had made no effort to trace their owner or even report them found. (That they were pets, rather than wild ducks was never in question.)
So, I feel quite incensed that
a) she took my grandson's pets in the first place b) when asked if she would drive part way to meet my daughter and return them she refused, and c) that she was quite unrepentant.
The only nice outcome is that I was due to look after my two little grandsons for a few days from this evening, whilst my daughter and her husband have a few days break, and instead I got to have the little one (ten months) for the whole afternoon today as well whilst his parents chased off to Cambridge and big brother was attending his first pantomime. (Looking for the silver cloud 
)
I've got another 'keen'... Ouch!
