Fowl Attack

One of the reasons that I felt traumatized by turkeys this past winter is because most animal species (including humans) have an innate distaste for bird attacks. Hitchcock's The Birds comes to mind. So does this quotation from Nicholson Baker:

Claire told me last night that Lucy, the frail but funny woman who lives on our street, has had to go into the hospital. She’s going to be okay, but the woman who helps Lucy was trying to find a home for Lucy’s pets. Claire was wondering whether we should take one of the cats. I see that it would be a good thing to do but it seems to me that our current cat gets into terrible fights with neighbor cats already, and he’s had a major blow this year as a result of the arrival of the duck. Greta, although not very bright in some ways, is shrewd about cats. What you do is you walk up to the cat slowly, as if you want to say hello, and when the cat tentatively extends its nose in the willing-to-sniff-and-be-sniffed stance, you peck at him sharply. Then, when the shocked cat turns to walk away, his ears back, his feelings and nose hurt, lunge at him again and peck him directly on or near his anus. That makes him gallop off—for no animal likes to be pecked on the anus by a duck.

from A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker, 2003