Durban - Spammed by a guinea fowl.
He looks like a bird, thinks he’s a dog and spams like a bad marketing campaign. Welcome to a day in the life of Whereyou, a guinea fowl that has residents in Winklespruit smiling in amusement because of his antics.
Reared by journalist-turned-detective Carol Lane, Whereyou (that’s the name he responds to) arrived in the most unfortunate way but has been determined to leave his mark no matter what.
Lane says a pair of guinea fowls was nesting at a neighbour’s work property when monkeys chased them away, and upon inspection only two of their eggs remained behind. She said one of the eggs hatched and that’s how Whereyou entered the world.
Lane says he acts like a dog, following her around.
“The other day I walked up the road to drop something off and he came with me. He also comes into my office for cuddles.”
When visitors pop over for a braai, they are usually frightened when a bird suddenly lands on their shoulders, she said.
However, it’s his hobby – playing with her computer keyboard – that’s caused the most consternation. Lane’s mom Barbara said: “It has demolished a number of computer keys already, and more than once has managed to activate Carol’s computer desktop WhatsApp. A rather startled friend messaged Carol to find out if she was okay because she had received a long stream of messages, all saying something like ‘wvxyz1790’.”
Lane said Whereyou’s other favourite pastime was “terrorising the German shepherd” Quade, but the two remained friends as long as the guinea fowl didn’t peck at the dog.
Having an eccentric bird is not unusual in a home to which locals flock when they find a sick or abandoned bird.
“We often sit up through the night keeping them warm and feeding them antibiotics. Everyone has a name and is tame,” said Lane.
Currently there are about 30 chickens, many rescued from the beach where they are used for religious rituals, and some have now been taken to a farm.
“They are all free range and usually named after the people who bring them in,” she said.
Lane said there was a pair of storks who visited every day for the past five years for snacks after she saved one who had fishing line wrapped around his legs.
She said the storks would announce their arrival by tapping on her window and would then be given a treat of liver or fish.
All her birds sleep in “hocks” or in the avocado tree. One rooster called Louis was the “siren” in the neighbourhood and would crow as soon as he heard anything unusual happening in the street, no matter what time of the day it was. Louis has since died.
“When one dies it’s a death in the family,” said Lane, describing how close they became with all the birds.
Another rule was that she would never eat anything she had raised.
The chickens have become such an important part of the human family that her 16-year-old son Casey sold their eggs at a local market for pocket money which he spent mostly on computer games, she said.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” said Lane.
The Independent on Saturday