Luna

I brought Luna home from SF ACC on 2/20 during a lunar eclipse. She had been picked up by an Animal Care Officer on 2/13 near a garbage dumpster at Drumm & Washington. Her feet were entangled in string with "one toe on each foot black and dead". She was also covered in oil in a weird way- as if she had stuck her head into a turtleneck sweater made of oil. Opinion went back and forth as to whether or not she was all white underneath the oil or black and white with oil on top.

Since I had been fostering and placing all the king pigeons that had come in for a few months, ACC staff cared for Luna rather than euthanizing her as I believe they would have in the past (when they had to euthanize even healthy pigeons for lack of adopters). They removed the string, bathed her, put her in an incubator and e-mailed me about her.

Unfortunately, my e-mail went down that weekend and I never received the message. I didn't know about Luna until I came in for my volunteer shift on 2/20 and so there was a delay in getting her to an avian vet. She went to For the Birds the next day where she was treated for infection, had the remaining fibers removed from her tissue (with benefit of magnification) and had surgery to remove the dead toes and suture up the stumps. Out of the original eight, she ended up with a total of four toes. Dr. Van Sant generously treated Luna at a discount and applied a Mended Wings grant to help with the cost, as well.

Once home, Luna struck me as more like a feral pigeon than a king pigeon, perhaps because she had been out on the streets awhile and had survived the string entanglement. When I treated her wounds, she was crafty and explosive in her efforts to escape her (cozy, heated) hospital crate; she ate fast and efficiently, like she knew there wasn't always going to be enough; and once released to the general pigeon room population, she flew more frequently than she walked. I thought this was because of her sore feet but my pij expert, Dan, pointed out that launching and landing are far more stressful on pigeon feet than walking is.

Luna became the second of a run of three girlfriends that Tony Baby had. He started with Doll but then left her for Luna whom he later left for Rocky. Luna didn't give up as easy as Doll did, though, and shadowed Tony Baby throughout his courtship of and nesting with Rocky.

On 3/19, Luna was adopted by Dan and now lives in his indoor loft. Most of his pigeons are feral and Luna, though she is a king, fit in well from the first day. She has since grown out most all of her oil-stained feathers to reveal that she is all white. She's mated to a feral pigeon named Number 9. She gets an all-you-can-eat buffet of gourmet, organic food and Dan even delivers to her when she's stuck on the nest. She's a lucky bird.