July 2008 Rescue Updates

7/30/08
Turns out that king pij that I left behind at SFACC on 7/17 had a broken ankle. After my experience with Pearl (a fatally injured pigeon that looked OK but was not and that I left at the shelter several days when she should have been rushed to the vet), I made a rule that I would always handle each pigeon as soon as I see them to better guage their condition. I was making myself leave this pigeon behind and didn't handle him (breaking my own rule) because I didn't want to get attached and make leaving him behind harder on me. And so he stood on that broken ankle for a week without care. It's an important rule and I'm NOT going to break it again.

I've been completely full up and have exhausted my pigeon vet budget and so couldn't just take him in myself. Through a new division that Mickaboo has opened called MickaCoo, I was able to get vet money donated (after spending 14 hours working the e-mail and web groups) and a foster home lined up and so Gatsby, as he was named by the shelter, is recovering nicely now.




MickaCoo is the big news. It's a new division of Mickaboo devoted to pigeons and doves. Mickaboo announced it this way:

Mickaboo has a new wing! As you know, Mickaboo is a companion parrot rescue organization, but we just can't stand it that other companion birds like doves and pigeons are suffering and being euthanized in Bay Area shelters. Tina, a very long time Mickaboo volunteer and foster parent, just about single-handedly rescued scores of doves and pigeons and placed them in great homes over the last several years. Then Elizabeth joined Mickaboo and took up the cause of doves and pigeons in a big, big way. Because Mickaboo struggles to keep its head above water just dealing with parrots in shelters, the only help we've been able to offer Elizabeth is posting birds on the Mickaboo website. She's been taking doves and pigeons in, fostering them, and paying all the vet bills herself---sometimes thousands of dollars a month. In an effort to support Elizabeth and help the cause of doves and pigeons, we decided to form MickaCoo, a division of Mickaboo. This should help Elizabeth with her fundraising efforts for the cooing kids, and give them more visibility. The MickaCoo part of the website is still under construction so keep visiting often to see it as it takes shape! http://www.mickaboo.org/mickacoo.html

It's great but really scary, too. I was trying to cut way back on this rescue stuff. I realize now that the way I've coped all these years is by strictly limiting my exposure. I've lost that defense and, when you open your heart to pigeons, it will be broken many times. They are so humble and common and they get hurt in so many ways... Gatsby was MickaCoo's first pigeon. The second, an injured feral rescued by Mickaboo super volunteer Katie and handed off to pigeon rescue expert Nancy, died at the vet's.



7/20/08
On Thursday I went to SF ACC to pick up two chukars and three quail who'd been there a loooong time and were going stir crazy and transport them to a Mickaboo adopter in Sacramento. Even with the 37 mpg I get with my Honda Civic, that's over 5 gallons of gas and $8 in bridge tolls- over $30 for the trip. While at the shelter, I also picked up an injured feral pigeon that was scheduled for euthanasia but that didn't look too bad. My friend and pigeon expert Dan is rehabbing him (probable glancing hit by a car that broke some toes and bruised a wing) and it looks like he'll make a full recovery. I left a young king pigeon there (poor thing, scared and all alone in its cage). I'm full up and the shelter will hold him for a bit so his situation is less urgent, for now.




It's been a good week in the loft. Willow & Blue are definitely a couple. Billie & George and Alejandra & Sparks have again laid new eggs (which I need to replace with fake ones today) and Tank & Country have quit their last set of fake eggs and are gearing up to lay some real ones again. I WISH I could let them raise some babies. They'd be great parents and I'm sure they're getting very frustrated with all these dud eggs and baby pigeons are the cutest, sweetest things but I just can't do it. Right now there's the king at ACC that needs a home (I'm full up) plus four pigeons at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley and miraculously Mickaboo was just able to get five adopted out of San Jose Animal Services (via a Pigeon Talk member) yesterday but more will be in... please don't breed when there are so many to adopt.




Dill and Tess having been spending more and more time in the aviary (with the 'big birds') and spent the night out there for the first time on Friday. I think they loved it and were exhausted by it as well. I snuck them in yesterday evening (I miss them) and they napped the whole time.





I was really happy to get a visit yesterday from the bird that started all this- Gurumina, and my first adopter, Shaf. Both are beautiful.

7/12/08
I took ALL the pigeons in to For the Birds on Tuesday afternoon to get vaccinated for PMV, salmonella and pox. It was incredibly hot but my car's AC kept us alive. It was tough on everybody and the pigeons didn't feel too good for a couple of days afterwards (not surprising) but I was especially worried about the babies, Tess and Dill. Tess developed a weird air bubble under the skin of her left thigh (nowhere near any of the vax sites) and poor Dill was sick. He was sleepy and lost his appetite and was fluffed and just two hours before I was taking him back to the vet he urped up some golden-yellow drool and then, after a short while, felt better. He's back to his wonderful, normal self and Dr. Van Sant withdrew the air from Tess' little drumstick (the cause is a complete mystery but may be from a tear in an air sac that she got resisting restraint for her shots). Everybody's good and we're all glad to have it over with. I was too tired to take 'home sweet home' again pictures when I finally got everybody settled back in at 8pm that night.





Willow's dating! I've had Willow since March 12th and he's been single the whole time. He came in ill and had a slow recovery and then a relapse but in the past two months he's been doing great. He's a real character- I think of him as the Mayor and my Pet Sitter Jen calls him her right hand man. He's been strutting around and talking his game for awhile now but today's the first time I've seen him getting any play. He was snoogling with Blue, a bird I've had since April 5th. Why now all of a sudden? I have no idea. We'll see if this turns into the real thing.




Finally caught Billie & George spending time as a couple. They're a mated pair (and have been ever since George showed up on April 10th) but you never see them together- one is always on the nest. This week, though, they are in that honeymoon phase that the pij take after they quit a nest (of wooden eggs). I'll HATE taking their real eggs away from them in a few days but there are just too many homeless birds out there to allow more breeding. As Mickaboo says, Don't buy, don't breed, adopt!





7/7/087/7/08
I currently have 16 pigeons and that's too many. Until I manage to place some, I can't take any more in and that's really, really hard. I'm going to stop volunteering at SF ACC for awhile because to meet the birds that I can't help is too painful. If I don't know about them specifically, even though I know they're there in general, it's a little more tolerable. But not much. I feel like a failure though I of course know that no one person can help everybody. I've spent a lot of time and energy on generating potential adopters but it's been over three months since I placed a bird. I'm still hopeful about the opportunity Andy's Pet Shop offers and surely I can break this losing streak soon. One thing that I find VERY irritating is the irresponsible flagging down of legit rescue posts like mine from Craigslist. Craigslist used to generate good leads for me and pij. Now it is just a waste of time. I post my meticulously-crafted-to-meet-all-the-crazy-flaggers'-requirements ad and it's flagged down within 24 hours. I repost and it is reflagged. Ridiculous.

Tomorrow I'm loading up all 16 birds and taking them to For the Birds (Avian Vet) to get vaccinated. I'll be very glad to have that taken care of. I'll post pictures. They should be entertaining.

Everybody's doing very well. Tony Baby is still living with his mate Doll but fooling with his ex-wife Rocky on the side. Doll finally laid an egg (unusual that it's taken over two months of courting to result in an egg) and she was extra defensive yesterday, trying to drive everybody out of the entire southeast quadrant of the aviary even though it includes every nest box, a food dish, two major perches and the BBQ landing strip. Today, somehow, the egg was out of the nest and broken on the landing strip. I don't know how that happened. Doll's somewhat subdued. Rome is getting feistier about defending her (his?) space. Billie and George are about ready to give up on their current nest of fake eggs and lay some new ones. Same for Tank and Country, I think. The baby pij spend a couple of hours of supervised playtime in the aviary everyday and are adorable. Tank, always a gentleman of a bird, hangs out with them in a very tolerant, fatherly way that they respond to by relaxing. The other birds are still a little scary for them but, when Tank's on guard, they know they're safe.

The fourth of July starts around June 15th and goes through about July 10th in my neighborhood and it was INSANE on the fourth. Bombs. Big bombs going off all over the place. The adult pigeons handled it very calmly which was pretty impressive as they're the ones that were outside and all up in it. They were awake late into the night (fireworks didn't stop till after 1:30 am) but calm, not panicked. My poor dog was beyond miserable. The cats were tense. The conure and the budgies were annoyed. The baby pigeons (Dill and Tess) were scared and clingy but calmed down when I held them.

The third of July, at 3:31 am, I awoke to a big boom and the crackle and sizzle of an electrical fire in the utility pole twenty feet from my bedroom window. I'm usually great in emergencies (I like the focus I get with adrenaline) but electrical fires scare me. I could hear the strain in my voice talking with 911 and when I started thinking maybe I should start evacuating the many pets I've got, I couldn't quite remember who all I had. There were wires leading from that burning pole right to my house. How do you put out an electrical fire? Can you use water? (The FD did.) Big embers were blowing down the street and the thing was arcing and snapping and I was really worried about what those burning live wires were capable of. 911 was great and the fire department arrived and had it put out within 17 minutes. PGE was also great. (I called them, too.) They were out there by 4:30 in the morning checking it over and then spent several hours that afternoon repairing the pole. Evidently the heavy fog that night had utility poles catching fire all over town.