Jul 23, 2008

Gully, the Dove Pigeon

Steve jumped back into the apartment last night on his way out to have a cigarette yelling, "Baby! Come here! Come HERE! Come here now!" So I get up to see what could possibly have freaked him out so much. "Look at what is on the balcony," he says. So I did. And there was a pigeon all comfy on the back of our balcony chair. I love birds so I immediately began a conversation with him, and let him know that if he stayed I would buy him food, and give him water, and call him Gully. Gully had a tag on his ankle, which led me to think he is someone's pet, but who keeps a pet pigeon? So anyways, I left him some water in a bowl and bits of bread and we left him for the night.

First thing this morning I ran to the window like a little kid looking for Santa Claus, to find that Gully was still there. He hadn't moved all night, or it didn't look like he did at least. So I texted my sister to tell her about Gully, and she let me know some doves look like pigeons, so this very well could be someone's pet. Now I was a little concerned thinking that somewhere someone is very sad at the prospect of their lost dove. So once again, I let Gully know that if he stays, I will get him some bird seed today and take care of him. I also let him know that I would like to let him in but, he could very well be a pigeon, and what if he tried to eat my fish. I don't think pigeons eat fish, actually I think they eat garbage, but regardless, I can't let him in. Not long after, he perched himself on our railing, looked around and took off to someone else's roof. I was a little sad Gully left and a little worried he wouldn't be able to take care of himself. So I wished him good luck.

So after work today I was uploading the pictures I had taken of him, getting ready to blog about little Gully, when Steve, once again getting ready to go outside to have a smoke says, disappointed at the loss of his smoking spot for another night, "Gully's back." I jumped up and ran to the window and lo and behold, there he was. Little Gully had returned! Well now I'm really excited because I once again think I have a pet that will come visit us every night. So I got him some bread and put his water bowl out again and apologized for not having any wild bird seed, but he had left, and how was I to know he would return? So for another night, we have a pet dove pigeon named Gully.

addendum: I learned all about homing pigeons last night in researching Gully. I was all set and determined to find this guy's home. Then I read the link posted by someone and was horrified. We are getting seed in case he comes back tonight, and I've left him a water bowl. Maybe he is better off just hanging out on my balcony. Who knew I could learn so much about a little bird.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read all about what happens to lost homing pigeons: http://www.urbanwildlifesociety.org/pigeons/fancy/LostPijAbuses.html

Unknown said...

I love you Jennifer that was such a beautiful story and I wish for Gully to come back to you.Love Mieke

Jennifer said...

Ok that article posted by Anonymous is insane. If that's all true I'm done trying to find Gully's home and will just leave him food and water for when he returns.