pet pigeons

A long time ago, i rented an apartment that had two terraces overlooking the surrounding views. There was not only something inherently sexy about the voyeuristic nature of it, but the place itself was inspiring. I wanted to briefly share a story about some birds though that lived with me.

The two terraces were located on both ends of the apartment. Respectively, one was a part of my bedroom, and the other connected to the living room. I hardly ever went to the living room, but my bedroom terrace was sacred territory. One day, my terrace got incredibly noisy, and I thought I was being burglarized. Low and behold, I was having a visitor, a pigeon. Now, where I come from, regardless of how peripatetic I am, pigeons are considered to be flying rats, vermin, sometimes eaten, and of course I came to the same assumptions. It came and visited everyday. Days became weeks, and finally I realized it began nesting under my chairs I kept outside. First of all there was the hygiene part, no one wants an unwanted animal visitor nesting so close to where you spend your evening hours, but I wasn't going to hurt it in anyway. We tried to shoo it away but it kept on coming back. Eventually, I learned to live with it, and the pigeons had apparently laid eggs as well, and this was its gestation period. The eggs were going to be little birds, and what could I possibly do?

My mother was visiting for a bit and I was away on lecture when she called me in a panic.

"peawok, the pigeons had such an exciting day today. I was sweeping the balcony when I got too close to the little family that the mother flew off onto the trees across the road. The stronger of the baby birds though flew with its mother, while the other one fell off the balcony onto the street!"

I was living on the 3rd floor of a 5 story building, but I guess to a little bird, it is high regardless.

"the mother bird was clearly in stress, it kept on flying back down to its child nudging it with its little head to get it to fly up. After a few cars passed, the mother finally got the baby to fly up into the tree to join its other sibling. And eventually came home under your chair. I was so relieved. Oh peawok, it was just so mortifying to see that. Quelle stress!!"

At the time, I brushed it off as silly, but since the years have past, I came to realize how significant something like that can be. These creatures looked out for one another and were left to their instincts. I question how many people come to mind that really look out for one another in my life? We might have the right intentions, but survival seems to be last thing on our minds. How terrible it would be if were put in the same situation as the little bird family. I'll just leave it at that for today.