Do dogs have sensibilities? Undoubtedly.

This is a story about two dogs and their relationship with a bird.

In 1995 we got our first Neapolitan Mastiff, Rocco, and early the next year, our second, a female called Arielle. They formed the foundation of our kennel and breeding program.

Arielle was never a fussy eater – anything goes. If she could get into the shopping, a dozen eggs were no problem. Nor was a half kilo of butter. Talk about a shiny coat!

But her favorite food that she would get for herself, were birds. We lived on a large block of land at Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains, right next door to the Hydro Majestic Hotel. With the house at the front and the dogs in the back, we even managed to have a garden, although Neapolitans don’t just dig holes, they excavate.

On those rare occasions we went away for the day where we couldn’t take the dogs, we’d leave them with an extra serve of dry food after their breakfast, with some bones on top. The bones were usually gone before we were.

But Arielle would always prefer a fresher meal if she could get it. So when we got home, we often found she had managed just that. We’d find a beak or two and some feet. Currawongs were her prey.

Birds don’t have a big brain – you don’t need a lot of that when you can fly away from danger. But Arielle had worked out that bigger birds like currawongs always take off in a straight line. When they have enough wind under their wings they can maneuver, but first comes the straight line take off.

She would quietly creep up directly behind the bird, about two metres away, and then do a short pounce to get the bird to take off. As it did, she’d leap up and forward, all 70 kilos of her, and knock the bird down with her paws and chest. Feast time, although a bit tough on the bird. Every currawong in the yard was fair game.

Except for Mrs. Brokenwing.

Rocco and Arielle slept in our garage, where their food was served in bowls on a raised shelf.

Mrs. Brokenwing, as we called her, was a female currawong who had set up a nest in large pine tree about ten metres from our fence on the land of our neighbour, the Hydro Majestic Hotel. Her nest was only about three metres from the ground, as high as she could fly.

Three years in a row she raised a clutch of nestlings, feeding them Eukanuba Large Breed Adult Premium dog biscuits she had taken from the dog bowls. They were the shiniest, fattest currawong chicks you would ever see.

Mrs. Brokenwing could not fly properly because she had a broken right wing. We have no idea how that happened to her, but we are quite sure Arielle did not do it. Arielle took no prisoners, and none escaped her.

Each morning, our crippled currawong would flutter down from her nest, walk the ten metres to our fence, fly up to the top, jump off into our yard and walk across to the garage and walk through the side door. Then she would hop up to the dogs’ bowls, pick up a piece of kibble, walk back to the door and put it down on the concrete path outside. She would repeat this until she had ten or twelve pieces piled up.

The two dogs just watched her, occasionally followed her into the garage, but never touched her, nor did they do anything to frighten her.

After Mrs. Brokenwing had collected her dozen or so pieces on the path, she would pick them up one at a time, walk them across the yard, some twenty metres, hop up onto the fence and down on the other side, and across to her tree. There she would make a new pile.

When she had all the pieces across, she would fly up and feed her chicks. It was a laborious process, an hour or more each time, but after she had fed her chicks, she would start again.

The two Neapolitans regarded her as their responsibility. They protected her from other birds – Mother Nature is normally cruel to disabled creatures – they rarely survive. Rocco and Arielle eventually accepted her so completely they not only allowed her to pick kibble from their bowls while they ate, they would also drop kibble on the path for her.

Mrs. Brokenwing did this for three spring seasons in a row, but did not come back for the fourth. We could recognize her chicks though, being bigger than normal because they were raised on Eukanuba’s finest.

Rocco and Arielle, in the meantime, produced their own babies, including from their first litter Maggiormente Pavarotti, who went on to become Australia’s first Grand Champion Neapolitan Mastiff.

Klaus Keck