Pierre UPDATE 10/5/10: Making a New Friend

This is my last picture taken of Piper & Pierre together, the afternoon of Friday 9/24. We went to the Medical Center for Birds the next morning and Piper died, very unexpectedly (for us humans) sometime Sunday night. Knowing each other so much better, I wonder if Pierre and Piper were more aware of her condition.



Since being apart from her, Pierre has soldiered on. He's bathing and eating and I've spent time hanging out with him.




He made a bow-coo for Rocky the king pigeon hen as she passed his cage on Monday and so on Tuesday I took him to San Jose to meet a new dove friend. There didn't seem any point to him being alone if he didn't have to be.

Cathy, a long-time pigeon and dove fancier and rescuer, Pigeon Talk moderator and friend of MickaCoo had a dove hen named Lucia (pronounced Loo-chia) that she thought might be a good friend for Pierre. (This picture is of Cathy and her rescued pet dove Emily who does not think of herself as a bird.)



Lucia is a petite, white domestic ringneck dove- hatched in Cathy's aviary as an oops baby 4/21/09 and whose mate, Donatello, was having an affair with Diane the wonder dove (rescued with two legs broken almost at the hip and who has recovered so well she doesn't even have a limp).

We put them together in the same big cage and Lucia flew to a high perch while Pierre hung out on his soft fleecy below. Cathy and I went to look at her new aviary for a few minutes and when we returned, Lucia had flown down to be with Pierre and was preening his irrestible pin feathers.



We took that as a sign of compatability and I brought Lucia home with Pierre and I with a promise to return her to the only home she's ever known if she didn't like it with Pierre and me.

Once at my house, I put Pierre into his cage and, as soon as I put Lucia in, he did some bow-coos. I got the feeling he was pretty excited to have a lady in his place.

Since that first day of flirting, Pierre and Lucia have taken things very slowly. They are good company for one another and very compatible but neither seems to be in a rush. Mostly they hang out together. Pierre coos to her every now and again and Lucia has preened Pierre briefly once or twice but I wouldn't describe them as actively courting.





I don't know if Pierre is grieving and/or waiting for Piper's return or if his sore leg (which is healing well) might be holding him back or if these two are just going the friends-first route or what.

I think both are doing fine and only time will tell what the future holds for Pierre and Lucia.