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Back in about 1962 I was around 9 year auld and I had a paper route with Taits doon at the station, the alarm hadn't gone off but I heard such a clamour outside the window on Hirst terrace, I looked oot and the sky was filled wi jackdaws, mebbees a hundred or so and they wor aal dive bombing this baby jackdaw on the roof across the street and pecking at him, it was still pretty dark but I run outside in me Jarmas an bare feet an tried ti help the poor bugga,... he comes flutterin off the roof and lands on top of the hedge an aah gan ti pick him up when Aal the bords start divin at me an tryin te giv is wot fer so Aah tucks him in me jarmas an runs for my door. I found a cardboard box and give him some bread and milk, then I dress an hop on me bike te pick up an deliver me papers before school starts. I came yem after school an gan reet te check him out an he,s deeing just fine, day after day I stick with him and he starts growing bigger so I build him a hoose out of aad crates in me backyard and I begin to train him to hop to and then fly to me..... The strange thing was that every time I took him to fly in the park or doon the Hapenny woods a group of jackdaws would show up and start attacking him, it happened every time, and then a jackdaw or two would always sit on the gutter at 31 Gladstone terrace across the way and if I left the yard with jack they would start raising the alarm and 20-30 of them would show up. He only liked me and my older brother David was always jealous that jack would not do anything for him at all except fly back ti me!!! I would go swimming in the Blyth river wi him aal the time an he would sit on my hand and flap his wings in the wetta and shake his head aboot and hev a nice drink too. The Sentinel Jackdaws never stopped following us ever and for about 3 years we were best mates and he knew that if he got back on me shoulder I would protect him, we would gan up ti the market place on Saturdays ti get me comics at Carrs and he would like ti dive bomb the cars in the road an give them a Glif or two, he learned ti talk a little and could say mebbees 6 or 7 words and he had a real personality about him. But then one day I was very late getting out of school and as I came into the back yard jack would usually call to me but not today........ David was standing next to the open cage as white as a sheet and mumbling about how it was an accident!!!!! I turned and ran like hell down to Wades farm to the tree that was Jacks favorite and as I ran I could see dozens of jackdaws flying back up towards the market place..... I got to the tree and looking down he lay dead at the base of the tree...... My heart broke into pieces that day and I never said a word to David about it until many years later. And I never knew why he was marked for all that time by the other Jack daws True story... Sad but True