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Q Now your situation is you’re going out with another carrier and you’re the lookout? And you take a tennis racket, is that right?

A I am the gentleman who walks with the tennis racket. The whole purpose of the tennis racket is to put it straight up in the air so if the bird does swoop, it will misjudge itself. It goes for your high point. It would hit my tennis racket before it hit me. It’s never come at me with its claws out, its claws have always been tucked behind. Every carrier who has come out to assist me in delivery has enjoyed their experience. They have enjoyed watching the bird — because usually they’re new and the bird only focuses on me — so they enjoy that experience.

QBasically you’re saying that they enjoy watching their boss get swooped by a hawk?

A Totally.

Q Totally. That’s pretty funny. I’m sorry. No, it’s not funny because people got hurt. It’s not funny. It’s not funny.

A I never got hurt at all. I never felt that I would get hurt. I did get, though, that if I’m not prepared, if I’m not alert, it could scare the crap out of me. I totally got that, which is why I’d never send a letter carrier out by himself. Last year, what happened was a bird actually clipped a carrier in the corner of her eye. She got two black eyes from it, so we cut off the mail. Another wore a bicycle helmet to protect herself. It broke after the bird dive-bombed it. Four weeks ago, the bird started swooping our carrier — he had his back to the bird and the bird came down and clipped him in the back of his baseball cap. It went through and scratched him.