We've all heard stories of animals and humans bonding. We often think about human to animal bonds as being between pets and their owners. The love of a dog or a cat, for example, is as pure as it gets, and even stranger animals also show some very unique bonds with humans, like pet snakes and reptiles.
Although pets and their owners will always have a magical bond, there are often stories of completely wild animals sharing a connection with a human. That could be because the human feeds them, saved them from a dangerous situation, or just because the animal is friendly. Either way, these stories are always fantastical.
If you are ready for a fantastical and heartwarming story about animal and man, then you've found one. In this case, one man and a seagull of all creatures ended up sharing a bond that has lasted twelve years. Read on to find out what it is that has connected these two unlikely friends.
It all started twelve years ago when an elderly man rescued a seagull, saving it's life. In return, the seagull visits him every single day to show its gratitude. The elderly man in question is John Summer, and his bird friend is named Chirpy'. The two of them spend every day playing with each other on the beach. That's right. The two of of them play together, and we're not talking about John throwing bread at Chirpy. These two actually play together after John nursed the seagull's broken leg.
As John puts it, "I saw him screaming and shouting above my head in agony and I did not know what to do. The next day he came around me again and tried to land, but was screaming in pain. I did not think he would live, his leg was completely broken."
As can be imagined, having a broken leg severely affected how much food Chirpy could eat. Without help, Chirpy would eventually starve and die, if he wasn't eaten by predators even sooner. John Summer used his dog Jack's dog biscuits to feed Chirpy. Now John always bring some dog biscuits for Chirpy, though they might be more aptly named bird biscuits.
Chirpy's leg healed eventually, and now the two of them share a friendship. John Summers explains it: "He comes right up to me, he gets so close. He won't go to anybody else but me, so he has got some sort of relationship with me. In March, he will go off and do his natural thing and then in September, he is back with me as normal after they have done their nesting."
Chirpy and John Summers bond is no accident. Chirpy doesn't trust any other human on the beach except for John. Chirpy is about twenty years old, so more than half of his life has been spent with John.
John explains people's reaction to his friendship with Chirpy: "There's not that many black-headed gulls on Instow Beach. If there was more than 20, I'd be surprised. He encourages the rest to come over, but he is the only one that comes close to me and he will just stay there and hover. People are aghast when I tell them, they can't believe a seagull would come back like that. It makes you wonder what kind of world we actually are in - do they know more than we think they know?" It would appear that Chirpy knows more than we think he knows.
