the rescue report: Wally

MickaCoo has been very full and adoptions have been very low. The holidays and winter are even tougher for placing pigeons with great adopters because folks are busy with other things and the weather inhibits shipping and aviary building. Even so, I think adoptions are down even more than the usual winter slump because of the extra time I am now having to spend on fundraising and organizational development. Time that doesn't get spent on developing adopters.

In any case, MickaCoo is full and king pigeons have been piling up at SFACC. (We usually pull them every month or so but have been too full and so there were birds still there who had come in as far back as January.)

I got the call on 3/21 from SFACC saying unless we could take in/relocate some pigeons that about half would be killed for space starting 3/24. They had 16.

On 3/22, I went to SFACC and pulled most of the pigeons out of their small, single cages and let them loose in a "Get Acquainted Room" so that I could assess who was strong and weak, healthy or sick, male or female... and try to figure out places where they could go.

I had a MickaCoo foster home for the two youngest (and most at risk) birds Pineapple and Petey and so they would come home with me...

We were going to squeeze gentle old Alaska (the bird who had been in the shelter the longest- since 1/11) and his love-through-the-bars Charlotte (formerly Eclipse) into a small foster aviary in Petaluma...

The four strongest kings would go to Marin Humane Society.

But while I was in there with the flock, I heard over the intercom, "Second floor staff to the Desk, king pigeon impound" which meant another one (or more?) was coming in.

After I got all the kings sorted out and put away either back in their cages or boxed up to come with me, I checked on the new bird. Number 17.

Poor thing was a deathly sick baby king found the previous day in Dolores Park (Note to the People who "release" these birds in parks- DON'T! It is MURDER!)

I brought the poor baby home knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to save him. He was too weak. I gave him sub cu fluids and a little supplemental feeding, a heating pad and the comfort of some company- fellow babies Pineapple & Petey.