Update on Ava, Recovering from a Spinal Injury

Ava came into MickaCoo's care on 8/9 unable to stand or walk. She was facing shelter euthanasia if not rescued.

I have been fostering her and she is a very gentle, enigmatic and patient bird. For weeks she sat, unable to stand, watching the world (including many birds) out the window. She was a good eater (though her wasted breast muscles make her feel very thin) and she spent a lot of time with "the bird in the mirror" as volunteer Sherri would say. And though she didn't like it, she tolerated my daily sessions of gently moving her legs and every other day of floating her in a sink full of barely warm water for therapy (and in an effort to stave off sores and frozen joints).

As restricted as her life was, she always held herself like a lady of royalty, never giving any sign of how worried or unhappy she must have been.

I do think she enjoyed her visits from dove/nurse Lily who would join Ava in her small box and steal seed treats. While Lily's visits could easily be considered rude by the rules of pigeon society, his sweet innocence and gentle ways seemed to win Ava's acceptance.

Lily, being a dove is smaller than Ava, weighing 152 grams to her 310. And he's young and very charming. Lily doesn't (yet?) have the bluster and bombast that a lot of doves sometimes do. In any case, I really think that Ava enjoyed when impish Lily came to visit. She never said otherwise. In fact, Ava's total lack of defensive behavior pretty much says she loved Lily's visits, cheeky as they were.

Ava's initial progress was very slow but, as you can see in these pictures taken 10/1, she has begun to recover. At first it was just to stand. And then she was able to take a couple of steps.

Her left leg is much stronger than her right, still.

But Ava has made enough progress that she now hangs out with other special needs birds (she couldn't before- she'd have been harmed). Below, from bottom left to bottom right are Ava, Biscuit, Jenny, Lucky (both by the door) and Lily (in the dish bottom right).

And she's been promoted from a single hospital room to a sharing a convalescent room with previously rejected but now accepted roommate, blind Jenny.

And Ava & Jenny have been doing well as roommates. They've worked out the basics and have established some trust.

Now they're taking it up a notch. Jenny courted Ava a bit yesterday.

And, while Ava heard him out for a minute, she eventually shut him down.

But that makes sense because Ava's not ready for romance yet.

Though she did do some amazing bonding with adopter-to-be Annye the first time they met. I was really moved by how much Ava enjoyed Annye's attention. Ava has not been a love bug with me.

Annye & Jane are the folks who rescued Jenny in the first place and, now, after a lot of time and thought and effort and preparation, they're going to adopt him and his friend Ava. And I think they are all going to a very happy family. (Quirky side note- Lucky, the other blind pigeon we have in foster care also hooked up with a sighted Persian High Flyer, just like Jenny is.)