MickaCoo Updates

I'm still trying and still failing to catch a pigeon that I wrote about on July 7 (Stringfoot Heartache). She comes around most every day and I've almost caught her a bunch of times and she has in turn become warier and warier of me. I long to catch her and free her from the string that she is tangled in. The good news is that her feet are at least no longer bound together. The entangled toe on her right foot died and came off, leaving her with one useable foot and the other still painfully entangled.

Melody, the young king rescued from SFACC and suffering from PMV, is doing well. He (I now believe) has surprised me by completely redefining our relationship. Early in the month, he was very fearful of me and exhibited terrible stress and increased PMV symptoms whenever I was nearby. He was so unhappy that I tried relocating him to the Flusche Cooop foster aviary to share a crate within the aviary with Soho, another king recovering from PMV. They did OK and, if they were compatible, it would be an ideal solution for two lonely birds.

And they did do fairly well. Soho is an adult male and Melody is a juvenile, not yet sexually mature. Despite their age difference and close quarters, they managed pretty well together for a couple of days.

On a follow up visit, I was really torn. Soho seemed happy and was cooing to Melody to come join him in a nest. Melody seemed OK but not great. If they did bond, it would be ideal but there was some conflict and I couldn't let go of a nagging worry for Melody.

I reluctantly decided to bring Melody back home with me, knowing that he hadn't been very happy there (and I'm already caring for too many fosters). But Melody surprised me as the pigeons so often do. He was thrilled to get home back to his own cage. And, as shown in this picture, seemed exhausted from the experience.

Since coming back home with me, Melody LOVES me and thinks I'm great. I'm no longer conflicted about the decision to bring him home.

He's no longer afraid of me and instead thinks of me as a friend and even a potential mate. He struts for me and will gently nibble and preen my hand. I now think he is a he and that it was just too much pressure for him to be confined with Soho. The longer I work with pigeons, the more complex I perceive their emotional lives to be. I wouldn't have expected, even if Melody wanted out of the crate with Soho, that he would so completely reverse his feelings for me. Both Soho and Melody continue to slowly recover from the effects of PMV.

Another update that surprised me (but not many of you), is that I find that while I had never intended to adopt a dove, I cannot give up Lily, the oops baby that I unexpectedly brought home on 4/23 to foster and hand-raise for lack of any other option.

She (?) is so charming and dear and thinks so highly of me that I can't imagine giving up this little oops friend. She lives indoors in a flight cage (and on my shoulder and on the computer monitor) and spends time outside in the pigeon coop everyday as well.

Typically I don't recommend that a dove live with pigeons (unless in an extra large and under-crowded aviary) because doves will often start conflicts that the much larger pigeons will finish but Lily does great out there. I'm still supervising closely and there may come a time when it won't work but for now, it does. And, adorably, Lily has maintained her friendship with Neo, the baby pigeon with whom she grew up (and who is now quite the giant young man bird out in the coop).

Further proof of Lily's almost supernatural social skills is the fact that she is even winning over curmudgeonly Tookie, my green-cheek parrot.

But all these little moments are overshadowed by an urgent need for more adopters. MickaCoo placed more than 40 pigeons and doves in wonderful homes in June but we still have 210 in need of homes and, at the end of this month, we are losing our biggest foster aviary.

MickaCoo super volunteer Russ and his wife are moving (and downsizing). It is their incredible generosity that enabled us to dare to take on the 216 Persian High Flyers (and I always knew this day was coming). The loss of their foster capacity means we are in urgent need of new foster aviaries to house the birds Russ is still caring for.

MickaCoo, thanks to generous donors, has several unused aviaries that could be transported and assembled in new foster volunteers' yards.

Or if you've been meaning to create an aviary for rescued pigeons but just haven't gotten around to it, now would be an incredibly helpful time to do.

I am feeling very stressed about our large caseload and yet am also having to turn birds away (which is a whole other kind of stress).

If you or someone you know could help a pigeon or two, it would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at AdoptKings@gmail.com. Thank you!