Of course, my response what "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAUGHT A LIVE ANIMAL?!" I'm thinking....a deer? A raccoon? A rhinoceros?!
A pigeon. A white homing pigeon.
Isn't it sweet? There was a band on each of it's legs and one included a phone number. When honey called, an older gentleman answered from a town about 30 miles away. He explained that the bird had probably been released for either a wedding or a funeral (and we always thought they were romantic white doves) and that he'd really like to come pick up the bird, but he wouldn't be able to get to us until tomorrow. Imagine Kelly's enthusiasm at an overnight guest?
These pigeons are trained to always find their way home, but sometimes a hawk or falcon will go after it so the poor bird gets all off track and tired- hence the reason that Kelly was able to walk right up to it and catch it.
Since he was still at the farm working, he put it in a live trap with some corn and a little dish of water. The big black barn cat was hungrily eyeing the bird, so he hung the trap up in the rafters with some rope (this poor bird, I'm telling you).
He brought the bird home where we put a little fluffy grass in there for him, then left him in the mudroom for the night.
When the gentleman came and picked him up from the farm the next day, the self-proclaimed 'city-boy' was blown away by all of the farm equipment, so he exchanged numbers with honey and is going to call next fall for a ride in the combine.
After a little research, I found that the common pigeon is actually a type of dove called the 'Rock Dove' so, technically, the pigeons they are releasing really are doves. Romance is back.
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