Fall 2020 October 2020 Blue Umbrella | Page 19

By Sabrina B .

My Li f e wi t h a Pi geon

At the beginning of May 2020 , my family and I found a small surprise on our porch . This surprise is now living with us and we call it Pepper . You are probably wondering if this is a child . Well , yes , my pigeon is my child .
Pepper , which we assumed was a ? she ,? is a wild pigeon that could not fly and self-rescued itself by coming to my family . We were not sure what to do with her , so we grabbed an old birdcage that we had and put her in there .
We then transported her to what used to be a large cat enclosure . As days went by , she started to be able to fly little by little , but by the time she could fly well , we couldn ? t release . We couldn ? t release her because she had been with us for over a month and a half , becoming like a family member to us .
Each day as we went to feed her there were more and more wild pigeons coming to visit her . One day one even snuck in her cage , and we still can ? t figure out how that happened . We called on our group of pigeon parents and asked them whether we should let the other one out or let Pepper have a friend .
They all said to let the newbie out because it probably snuck in Pepper ? s cage for the food .
The most interesting thing that has happened since finding Pepper was finding out that our pigeon was not actually the girl we had assumed it to be . We would have never figured that out if Pepper hadn ' t seen a girl pigeon and puff up , dancing around for her . That was a funny surprise for us to find that out . Even though Pepper turned out to be a male , he is still a little ball of joy that God placed into our lives . We are incredibly grateful for him .
Since I also have two ? normal ? pet birds , I know for a fact that having a pigeon as a pet is like having any other bird . Also , I want to set some things straight about pigeons . Many people have spread rumors and lies that pigeons are the ? rats of the air ? and ? carry terrible diseases .? Yes , pigeons can carry diseases , but it is very rare . Many people have them as pets since they are great pets and easy to take care of . All a pigeon needs is food , water , and a large cage so they can fly around , or if you don ? t mind cleaning up poop all day long then you can let them fly freely around your home . I truly love having a pigeon as a pet , and I am sure you would enjoy it too .

Just For Fun 19