Yesterday –or maybe earlier today, I do lose track of time on weekends– I ran across a video of a Kiwi walking on a treadmill. No, not a human resident of New Zealand or a small fuzzy green fruit … the endangered flightless bird variety of Kiwi. Made me chuckle…

I just looked into Piwi the Kiwi, because I was curious why one would have a Kiwi walking on a treadmill. Turns out the poor thing broke both his legs, and now they’ve been repaired and he’s on a regime of “treadmill workouts, massage and physio exercises.” Can I have that bird’s healthcare plan please?

What I found particularly interesting is that Piwi is half the size of a “normal” four year old Kiwi (presumably the bird and not human or fruit kind), yet they say Kiwis are “about the size of domestic chickens.” I thought the Kiwi on the treadmill seemed rather large enough, and I also thought it was about the size of a domestic chicken. Now I have to guess that the chickens in New Zealand are huge and Kiwis are giant marauding flightless birds (prone to breaking legs — at least this one seems to be), because I tell you, I think Piwi is a rather large bird.

I will now go back to thinking of Kiwis as adorable fluffy things of small stature. The concept of Kiwis being larger than the one is the video, well, it disturbs me for some reason.

We shall not speak of the size of Kiwis again.