What started out as a pleasant riding morning on the State Forest bike trail near my home quickly turned into one of those all too common Florida bizarro world experiences when a Cassowary showed up at a trail/road junction.
For those not familiar with this particular bird species let me just say that it stands about 5 feet tall, has dagger sharp foot long toes on the ends of its feet and a disposition that makes it as likely to try to eviscerate a human with a kick as to avoid contact with the person. It's also worth mentioning that the closest this bird comes to Florida in its natural habitat is approximately 9.000 miles away in Australia.
My wife and I managed to successfully evade the bird, warn on-coming cyclists and joggers and contacted the county authorities. Just another day in paradise
