The kindness of others (particularly Glen)

I handed a 10-page document to a lovely, bewildered bloke called Glen yesterday. It explained in minute detail how to care for my menagerie of pets.

Unsurprisingly, he called me in the afternoon as I lay on a banana lounge poolside on my holiday to clarify a few things.

He couldn’t quite believe, for example, that the chooks would really put themselves to bed at night. (They do!)

I couldn’t quite believe he’d volunteered to mind them in the first place.

When I put out an emergency call over Facebook for a pet sitter only days before my departure, I thought I had buckleys.

Glen, a former colleague from the Woman’s Day era, quickly responded to my message saying: “I have tried everyone. My nephew would have, but he has a course on. I am away otherwise I would have …”

But within four minutes he came back with: “I just moved a couple of things around. I can do it. Happy to if you still need someone. I love pets.”

What a champion.

Later, he wrote on his Facebook page: “Bit stoked. I’m house minding a friend’s house for a few days. I will be looking after a very cute dog, some rabbits and chooks …”

The kindness of others takes me completely by surprise sometimes.

And so Glen is caring for my crazy, not-quite-toilet-trained dog, a highly strung bunny that fills the night with cracking foot thumps and chooks that start squawking at sparrow’s fart.

Purely because he’s a thoroughly nice bloke.

Thank you, Glen.