domestic abuse at Granny's house!!!! The Titchener Tale

Rob and Helen 

If you listen to the Archers (as I do at the moment) you may be up to speed on what I call the Titchener tale.  A dark tale of domestic abuse of a particular kind!!! The bad boy is Rob Titchener  who managed  to ingratiate himself with everyone in Ambridge, the home of the Archers. He manipulating Helen into believing that she should do just what he said and made sure that she couldn't see her friends or family.  She became a almost a prisoner in her own home.  When Helen finally tried to leaveshe somehow managed to stab Rob with a knife he had just given her!!!! It  was in defence of her son Henry but she doesn't remember that yet.  It doesn't really sound believable does it (and of course it is just a story) but I have seen something similar happening here within my own household!  My two new hens, a cockerel and a hen, both very smart chicks, Buff-Orpingtons no less fell into the same pattern.  The bad boy cockerel bullied the kind golden hen which had to be rescued and put into the hen hospital.  He wouldn't let her move or talk to the other hens at all and when no-one was looking he pushed her head under a log and sat on her.  I had been going to call them Posh and Becks because they were so smart but I have decided to call them Rob and Helen.

not really to be trusted

Grace draws the dogs

This sort of story is one you don't think you'll ever come across in real life do you?  But beware the signs....The bully marginalises the victim and doesn't allow them to see their friends or family but manages to keep up a smiling face to others.  

What we did to reestablish good relations between them was this.  We put the Rob cockerel in with all the hens next door who he had been schmoozing with his charm through the fence and they realised quickly what he was really like and they gave him a really good bashing.  He was so pleased when he was rescued and he has been quite gallant to Helen hen all day, allowing her to eat whatever she likes and to talk to her friends again through the wire fence.  The moral of this story is that the bad person needs to see just how bad they are through the eyes of those they are trying to schmooze into thinking they are perfect!  Watch out Rob Titchener, watch out our golden Rob Buff-Orpington Titchener.