Friday, January 21, 2011

A Pigeon named Hop-Along

The pigeon called Hop-Along is a survivor. About six years ago something attacked her and left her barely alive with numerous injuries including a broken wing that was hanging on by a thread of skin.
She made her way into our yard and let my son pick her up then he brought her to me.

I couldn't afford to take her to a vet but wanted to help her if possible...so,we cleaned her up as best we could and then clipped the thread of skin which was holding her wing on. The wing was broken up near the shoulder with only about an inch of bone left in place. One of her injuries was a quarter sized hole in her crop where we could see the seeds she had eaten. When she drank drink water it would run out of the hole in the crop. That she survived is amazing but survive she did. I think her will to live was strong.

In time her injuries healed but with only one wing she would never fly again. That meant she would have to be cared for for the rest of her life . Since she was ground bound a friend suggested the name Hop-Along. It fit. She responds when someone calls her name.

I tried putting her in the outside pigeon house but with only one wing she was not accepted by the other birds so she lives in a cage in my home and she is a character !

Thinking she needed company in her cage I tried putting different pigeons in with her but she rejected every one and wouldn't accept a room mate. She does like the mirror in her cage and she enjoys looking at the pigeon in the mirror looking back at her. She enjoys toys and has several kinds of bird type toys hanging from her cage. What she enjoys most are bells and the bigger and noisier the bell the better.

Let a conversation be going on in the room and she starts ringing those bells and really gets them jangling. When Linda comes into the room Hop-Along always greets her by ringing the bells.

Her next favorite toy is five plastic rings about two inches in diameter joined together like a chain. She tugs on the rings and twists them around and finally one morning I saw her standing there with the rings suspended from her neck ( see the picture at top of page ). She had managed to pull the rings loose from the fastener that held them attached to the cage. The rings fell with one ring slipping over her head. She looked like she was posing with a necklace . I had to take a picture . I'm sure it wasn't her proudest moment but it was kind of cute anyway.
Till next time.
Marion Springer