as small as a world and as large as alone

4:05pm July 23, 2014

clatterbane:

I am actually still pretty irritated that it has been necessary for me to run an occasional pigeon rehab center here.

Because the first time Mirrors dragged in an injured pigeon (almost as big as he was, at about half grown then)—absolutely NONE of the nearby wildlife rescue places wanted pigeons. I tried ones that would have required dragging the poor thing on trains for two hours to get there, on the other side of London, and nobody would take pigeons other than maybe wood pigeons or collared doves. Because those are considered “proper” wild birds instead of vermin.

My parents were visiting at the time, and my mom darkly commented about feeling like a flying rat herself a lot of the time. Yeah. :-|

If I found an injured wild rat, I’d have to try to help. Get some strong gloves and release it miles from my house afterward, but yeah. Nobody is inherently undeserving of that basic level of compassion and respect.

But, yeah, thank goodness for the internet, with info available for the searching. I knew basically nothing about taking care of birds, but had to figure that just treating any obvious wounds and keeping it safe with food and water for a few days to recuperate had to be better than nothing. And it has been on multiple occasions over the years, since they still have a problem with not considering a cat who is still not very big under all the fluffy fur a threat. :( He wears a warning bell. Some pigeons still don’t care.

11 notes