Dr. Kendall Crowns

Then pop!

One of my tomatoes exploded.

I looked up, and I could see my neighbor in his boxers and white t-shirt and bathrobe pointing a gun at me and taking aim.

I dropped my watering can and I ran, zigzagging in the yard.

I heard another pop while I was running, but I don't know where that one went.

When I got in the house, I told Beth that the neighbor was shooting at me.

She called 911 and the sheriff's office responded.

But we lived out in the country, so it took them probably about 20 minutes for them to get there.

During that time, I looked outside and noticed he was gone.

I went out there and picked up the dead bird.

I looked at the poor dead dove.

He was bleeding from his chest.

and I wanted to find out why he died.

I cleaned the feathers off the wounds and found an entrance and exit wound consistent with a gunshot.

They weren't very big, so whatever the gun was, it didn't have a lot of power or kinetic energy.

Plus, the bird was still intact, so if it had been a high-velocity rifle, the bird would have exploded.

When the sheriff's officer arrived, I went out to the driveway and met her with the dead bird in my hand.

I told her what had occurred, and then I showed her the dead bird and began showing her the entrance and exit wounds, and I started telling her my theory about the gun.

The officer looked at me, perplexed, and she said, Who are you?

Where did you get this bird from again?