Why Are You A Bully?

WHY ARE YOU A BULLY?

written by Debbie Williamson

Mr. Cat sat on a fence post each and every day at a certain hour. He sat there for one reason and one reason only. You see, Mr. Cat loved to tease Mrs. Robin. In fact, he liked to tease her so much that he was actually bullying her.

Mrs. Robin was just minding her business, flying past the fence post each day to get some worms for her hungry youngsters. At first she didn’t notice that Mr. Cat was actually waiting for her to go by him.

“Hey, Mrs. Robin,” he yelled at her one day. “Come and play with me!”

Mrs. Robin paid no attention to him. She knew that all cats were trouble. Besides, with her hungry youngsters in the nest, she had no time for playing.

“I want you to come play with me,” said Mr. Cat, angrily the next day.

“I’m not going to play with you,” said Mrs. Robin, sternly. “I’ve got things to do and I am actually in a hurry.”

“Well fine then,” said Mr. Cat. “However, if you don’t play with me, I will have to possibly hurt your hungry youngsters. They could use some manners anyway. They are pretty noisy once you leave the nest.”

“Why are you a bully?” asked Mrs. Robin. “What did I ever do to you to make you want to hurt my youngsters?”

Of course, Mr. Cat did not answer Mrs. Robin because he could not think of a reason as to why he was bullying Mrs. Robin, except that he took pleasure in watching her squirm in fear. Mrs. Robin didn’t know what to do. She really believed that Mr. Cat would do some harm to her youngsters. She also believed that he would hurt her too. Mrs. Robin didn’t say a word to Mr. Cat. Instead, she flew off to be with her youngsters.

Later on that same day, Mrs. Robin was out gathering worms for her hungry youngsters. She saw Mr. Cat still sitting on the fence post. He didn’t say a word to her this time. Mrs. Robin could see that Mr. Cat was rather busy, fending off the neighborhood dogs. The dogs were trying to catch his tail which was dangling down from the fence post. One dog actually got a hold of his tail and was about to pull Mr. Cat down. Mrs. Robin knew that Mr. Cat would have gotten seriously injured from those dogs so she started pecking at the dogs with her very sharp beak.

“Oh thank you,” said Mr. Cat, trying to gain his composure.

“You are welcome,” said Mrs. Robin.

“Why did you do that for me?” asked Mr. Cat.

“Well,” said Mrs. Robin. “Even though you were mean to me earlier, I didn’t want to see you get hurt.”

“That was very kind of you,” said Mr. Cat. “I guess that we cats could learn to get along better with you birds.”

“It would be nice,” said Mrs. Robin.

“Yes,” said Mr. Cat. “It would. Just think of the free protection we could get from those crazy dogs.”

“Can I ask you a serious question?” asked Mrs. Robin.

“Sure,” said Mr. Cat.

“Why were you bullying me anyway?” asked Mrs. Robin.

“I – I don’t know,” said Mr. Cat. “I guess it’s because you are smaller than me and you were an easy target.”

“Oh,” said Mrs. Robin. “Well you do realize now that bullying is not a very good thing, right?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Cat. “I do and I’m sorry for bullying you. I have learned my lesson and I promise it won’t happen again.”