YESTERDAY WAS EASTER SUNDAY...

[Solomio]

YESTERDAY WAS EASTER SUNDAY

My cats look out the patio doors that front on my long back porch. This is one of their favorite places to gather and sun themselves in the winter when the sun pours through these glass doors. But yesterday was Easter Sunday, and the winter sun has shifted so very little sun comes through my patio doors now. yesterday, late in the afternoon as the sun was setting my cats were looking out the patio door, the door closest to my rose garden. They love to watch the doves, scrub jays, blackbirds, I could go on and on because there are many types of birds that come into our yard to feed at our bird feeders. It was as my cats were looking out the window, when I heard a commotion coming from the cats. I looked out the long, glass door myself, and I saw a small ball of gray huddled against a porch pillar. This was what was exciting my cats to cause them to bang against the vertical shutters we installed on these porch windows. The cats were making a terrible amount of noise.

I realized that the scrunched up gray ball, huddled against the pillar on my porch, was a ball of feathers. I also realized that this mass of feathers was one of the beautiful doves that frequent my back yard to feed at the feeders, and also come to our yard in search of whatever else doves eat.

My husband and I both went out to the porch to inspect the bird, and we found that it was indeed a living dove that seemed to be having difficulty breathing. I call this bird ‘she’ so bear with me as I tell you what happened to us in regards to ‘she’ the dove. I really don’t know if ‘she’ is a ‘she’ or if ‘she’ is a ‘he’ but my husband and I both called her ‘she’ and sometimes we called ‘she’, ‘her’ so it remains that she is ‘she’, and sometimes referred to as ‘her’.

My husband clasped 'she' with both hands, and held her as we examined her to see if we could determine what caused her to huddle on our porch as the sun was descending on Easter Sunday, and all the other birds were returning to their nests for the night.
She appeared to be gasping for breath.
She kept opening and closing her beak as she gasped for breath.
My husband rubbed her throat and chest area. I guess you would say that he performed a Heimlick bird rescue on she. After he rubbed her throat and chest he ducked her beak into a bowl of water for just a fraction of a second. As she emerged from the bowl, she coughed out a large, unbroken seed from her throat, and it landed in the bowl of water.

She started breathing normally but the crisis wasn’t over.
When she tried to fly away from the porch she bumped into the roof’s overhand.
So we packed ‘she’ up into an animal cage we normally keep for transporting cats to the vet. We placed ‘she’ on top of a table in the garage for the night, and placed a heavy towel over the cage to keep drafts away.

At 6:00 a.m. this morning, the day after Easter Sunday, we checked on ‘she’. She was huddled in the back of the cage with her head turned into her feathers. As we left the garage ‘she’ gave out with a loud COOOOO, which is what doves normally do. So we knew that ‘she’ was feeling better. But as the sun rose up, and her mate arrived in the yard looking for her, we took her out to the back yard, and opened the cage. ]
She didn’t budge from her position at the back of the cage so my husband reached into the cage, and helped her to come to the entrance.
She tried to fly away but couldn’t.
We don’t know what is wrong now.
She is breathing normally now.
We wondered to each other if ‘she’ was still in a form of bird shock?

I spent an hour this am calling everyone I know who is connected with the Audubon society, wild bird rescue places, area vets, leaving everyone I called a message that I needed help with a dove that took refuge on my back porch yesterday, Easter Sunday.

I can’t keep her here because I have cats, and I don’t know how to care for an adult, wild bird.
I needed someone who was a veterinarian to look at ‘her’ and help ‘her’ to get well.

I finally succeeded finding a vet who is connected with the local wild bird rescue.
My husband has just returned from taking our beautiful wild dove to the vet. The vet is going to check her over, and determine if the wild bird rescue can get her back on her feet…you know what I mean…get her back on her ‘wing’.

He left his name and phone number with the vet with the request that he be contacted when and if she can be returned to the wild. We want to bring her back to where she came from because her mate keeps coming in the yard looking for her.

There are two pairs of wild doves that feed at the feeder in my yard. Now the single one is in the yard again. We want to bring ‘her’ back here so there will be two complete pairs again.

Please send good wishes to ‘she’ and wish her well.

Thanks,

Solomio
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The link below is to a 'timeline' of the Beetles careers...there are stories, pictures, links to more stories and pictures.
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http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html
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[RK]

Hi Solomio! I hope that somehow this all works out for good. That dove sounds like an angel, here to help us all understand the importance of having a mate and how we all need some help once in awhile. Thanks for the great story...it was coooool you shared it with us.

I miss you.

Russell

[Solomio]

Dear Russell in Minny Soda,

The story with the dove had a very unhappy ending.

My husband took the dove to the local wild bird rescue veterinarian.
The doctor gave the bird a shot of an antibiotic because it turned out that an animal had mauled the bird, and the injury, which couldn't be seen by us because it was under it's feathers, had turned into a systemic infection. That was why the bird was huddled on our back porch seeking a safe place away from whatever had mauled it, and that was why the bird couldn't fly away. It was too weak to fly when we found it on our porch.

The dove died at the vet, and it's mate kept returning to our yard, every day, for weeks looking for it's mate. It was heartbreaking to see that single dove walking around the yard and porch calling out for it's mate. It even went up to the back garage door, and would call out for it's mate at the door; it knew that we had taken it into our garage.

I learned after everything was done and finished that there is an 'old wives tale' that says that if an ill dove comes to you, and it dies on your porch then someone in your family will be harmed or will die.
Good Lord, that dove came to us on Easter Sunday, and in Christian belief the dove is the symbol of the Holy Ghost! How can it mean something bad is going to happen?

I never believed in 'old wives tales' until we had one come true to our family.

What happened to my family was so frustrating, so miserable for us, that it started me Blogging.

I write, it is important for me to do this; I live to write sometimes, so Blogging is a right fit for me.

Take care,

Solomio,
What? Me worry? Why worry?
Que Sera, Sera, what will be will be, so don't worry because it won't change a thing.
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_________________
The link below is to a 'timeline' of the Beetles careers...there are stories, pictures, links to more stories and pictures.
.
http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html
.
.

[Lenore]

Oh, that's a sad story about the dove. How sweet and loving of you and your husband to care for her that way. Don't worry about anything bad happening to your family. Maybe the dove you rescued is now an angel dove protecting your home. I pray that her mate can overcome his grief soon.
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"On earth, an angel's wings are inside..."
-- Unknown

[Solomio]

Lenore,

Your words are very kind.

As it turned out a member of our family contracted a disease, and died in September of last year. That member of our family was our beloved ginger tom cat, which we called Leroy Brown.

It was Leroy and his Queen Loretta Lynn, who saw the sick dove on our back porch, and called out so we were able to find the bird, and try to save it's life.

You are right about the angel, the angel that looks down, and watches over us now, is our Leroy.

Loretta Lynn is very sad because her Leroy is gone.

I am especially sad because that cat was so special.
He would always be at the door leading to the garage whenever we would return from shopping. Leroy would follow us into the house and jump up on the counter so he could look into the bags, one by one to see what we were bringing home from the grocery store.

As I would unpack the grocery bags, Leroy had to inspect each item and if it was a vegetable, he had to have a little piece for himself.

Leroy suffered from something called salivary gland cancer.

We found the dove on our back porch on Easter Sunday, April 2009. Leroy contracted the cancer sometime in late May to mid June. We knew something was wrong the first week in July. He went to the vet on July 2 and had the first of 3 surgeries on July 3, 2009.

Leroy passed away in the vets care, on September 18, 2009, and he passed away after he was abused by a member of the vets staff, who chased him around the doctor's clinic 2 hours after he had surgery.


Solomio
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_________________
The link below is to a 'timeline' of the Beetles careers...there are stories, pictures, links to more stories and pictures.
.
http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html
.
.

[Solomio]

Lenore,

Yes that's me, picture taken a month ago, and it is the same picture I am using on my google Blogs. I might as well admit to it that is indeed me.

Not as cute as the avatar I used before, but yes, indeed, that is moi.

The frightening thing is that my image will be repeated over 1500 times in this web site! Good Lord, that's a lot of repeating!

Solomio
_________________
The link below is to a 'timeline' of the Beetles careers...there are stories, pictures, links to more stories and pictures.
.
http://beatles.ncf.ca/timeline.html
.
.