Bless the Beasts

This morning started off badly. After I dropped my son off at work, I decided to drive to the 7-11 for a quickie coffee, since I'm out at the house and have been too lazy to actually shop for groceries.

In the road, just ahead of me, were two pigeons. As I neared the pigeons, one walked away like pigeons always do; the other barely moved.

I'll blog about it another time, but I am an animal lover and have rescued many animals throughout my life. It doesn't matter what kind of animal they are, I simply cannot pass by a creature in distress and do nothing.

I didn't want to see that pigeon: I had a strange summer full of animals in need of help, and oftentimes it's very distressing and time-consuming. I told myself, "I'm not going to do anything about that pigeon". I went into the 7-11 and got the coffee, thinking of the pigeon the entire time. When I walked outside, I was hoping it had moved out of the road, flown away, whatever. It hadn't.

I drove out into the street and pulled my car over to get the pigeon. One look at it was enough to know that there was no way I was going to leave it there, it was injured badly, though it was still standing up and put up a bit of a fight when I grabbed it.

Went home, left the pigeon on the dashboard of my car (which is where it had planted itself), got a box, managed to get the bird into the box, ran back in, washed my hands, got back into my car and drove to the West Side to the Wildlife Rescue. That organization is a god-send to those of us who can't look away.

Pigeons are tough birds. I guess they've got to be to live in the city, so close to humans. Maybe the veterinarian I handed it over to will be able to save it. Or maybe they had to put it down. Either way, it's no longer standing in the middle of the street, suffering.

Man, that poor bird bummed me out.