He was the talk of the neighbourhood; a glorious apparition poised over our fences. I was not the only one to feed him, but eventually we decided it was time to ring the animal rescue organization.
They could not have been less concerned.
Their advise was not to feed him and he would go away! We were horrified, and decided to look for his owner - after all how many peacock keepers could there be in our area?
Putting our heads together, my neighbour remembered there was a farmer in Katwoude with peacocks, so she went to ring him - I knew that a client of my husband had peacocks, so I rang her. It turned out she had 9 peacocks and peahens, and had not noticed if there was one missing - she promised to go and count them, then ring me back. My neighbour reported that the Katwoude lead was a dead end, and mentioned that there was a house down on the harbour with peacocks - but she did not know the owners name.
I resolved to call on them, and walked over, approaching the house with a little trepidation, as there was known to be a big dog in the garden. Amazingly, the dog ignored me, and I walked past a phalanx of peacocks to reach the front door.
No, these people were not missing a peacock either; although they had been contacted over the last few days by various people who had seen a lost peacock.
I went home amazed that peacocks should be so popular, to find our peacock - gone!
