Pigeon

[eredien]

Coming out of the T station near Congery, all was right with the world. The sun was shining, I'd had a lovely lunch with fiddledragon and a productive day at work; I had been contemplating projects for my sewing machine, and had been reading Barthes on the subway.

I saw a pigeon in the little park next door, and felt, if possible, happier. (I really like pigeons; their reputation as city rats is, to my mind, undeserved; I think of them as good omens, as comforts.)

Someone passed within two feet of the pigeon and it didn't move.
That's strange, even for a city bird. They at least usually look at you, with a slightly annoyed air, before sauntering out of the way.

Then I noticed it was sitting down.
In the middle of a noisy park, during rush hour.
This is unusual; pigeons don't sit unless they're comfy. And then they tuck their feet up under them, and occasionally groom themselves with soft purling noises before sticking their head under their wing and taking a nap.

I walked over to the pigeon.

It opened its eyes. "Not good," I thought. Birds rarely sleep during the day unless they're old, or ill; it's a sign of weakness and draws predators.

This pigeon's feet were kind of shunted out to the side, laying over the top of each other. I've never seen that before.

I squatted and looked at the pigeon. It blinked sleepily and made no effort to move, though it did breathe a little faster, worried.

I went home and used Google and called the local animal rehabilitation people. I was really glad that they didn't laugh me off the phone when I said it was a pigeon. However, they didn't seem to know the street address of the T station; I looked it up as best I could on the website and gave them my phone number.

They said they'd send someone over and call me if they couldn't find it; thankfully, I am only a short distance away and could be there within 10 minutes to point it out to them should they need me.

I hope it's going to be ok, but I did the best I could. And if it does die, at least it'll probably die quickly, and not be toyed with by some cat, or accidentally stepped/skateboarded on.

--
Ye gods. I'd planned to do some penultimate-to-submission-date-writing today, but I spent the entire day folding letters and stuffing envelopes and my right wrist is planning a mutiny. More tomorrow...

Perhaps I'll try it with a pen after an hour or so; I do want to get this story in.

Comments

[gallian.livejournal.com]

i would probably give the intersection of the nearby crossstreet and the main artery as the address, asuming someone didn't know where it was.

hope the animal is okay....

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

You're so thoughtful.

[nucl3arsnke.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they didn't laugh at you, too. I also love pigeons. How can you dislike something that coos like that (and doesn't vomit on you like a baby would)?

Just a paranoid note: I think animal rehab people are taking all bird calls VERY seriously right now because of the worries of avian flu. Personally, I think these fears are unfounded ::knock wood:: but if you start feeling unusually funky within the next seven to ten days, I would advise you to be paranoid neurotic and see a doctor and tell her that you were in contact with a sick/injured bird.

[breimh.livejournal.com]

Ah, looks like someone else gave the advice that I was going to. That's good, at the very least. }:=*)

And Eredien, you are awesome! Taking care of even the simplest creatures of our world (and finding them beautiful where others only see them as a nuisance) at best is a very admirable trait.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

Pigeons are doves (you knew that, I'm sure, but just point that out next time someone says something bad about them).
Personally, I'm currently of the opinion that if an animal is sick because of natural causes, it should be left to nature. If it's injured in an oil spill or because it got hit be a car or a bike, or because our military sonor screwed up its echolocation or something, that's different.

[eredien]

*shrugs* If it had been being eaten by a cat I wouldn't have had a problem, but I honestly thought people might step on it or run it over with a bike and cause it unnecessary pain. No one else even seemed to notice it was there.

If it had really been sick (head caved in or something, guts torn out) I probably would have picked it up and snapped its neck myself.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree with not wanting to see it suffer unecessarily. I think you did the right thing, because you're right that someone might have caused it more pain. I just see people who seem to think that they need to save animals that don't need saving. But I think you respect nature enough to not want to interfere with it unecessarily.