Feather Friend

Our Dearest Rane has always found animals sick, injured and/or abandoned.

And guess what she's found last Sunday (27th April '08)?

Yes, it was a bird. A pigeon in fact.

That poor little thing was lying on one side of it's thigh on a grass patch when Piglet (Rane's youngest sister) first spotted it. Rane soon realised that it's right wing was injured, and was probably unable to fly.

With 20 minutes before the vet clinic closes, Rane sped to the vet. Thankfully, she was there just on before they closed. Not knowing what to name the pigeon, Mage had requested the nurse not to name the bird yet. However, the nurse needed a name to register for the bird, and decided to call it Pigeon Tan. (How silly can that be! It's like naming me Dog Tan! =X )

They had waited an hour and a half before the vet finally got to look at that poor little thing.

Initially, Rane had thought that after nursing the pigeon back to health, she can let it free. However, this was what the vet said after diagnosing.

The pigeon has fractured it's leg, and probably injured it's spine. It's claw is unable to grip onto anything, thus it can't perch on a stick/twig/branch/rod/whatever-that-is-long-and-straight. Without the ability to perch, the pigeon will not be able to fly. (And needless to say, without the ability to fly, the pigeon will definately not able to survive in the wild on it's own.) Most importantly, the vet isn't very optimistic about the pigeon's condition, as the pigeon might have sustained internal injuries (which is not oblivious to us, until other signs or symptoms are shown).

On the brighter side, the pigeon's injuries on the wings are external injuries, and the feathers will grow back. Most importantly, it's eyes are bright and it looked alert.

On the surface, the pigeon looks like any other bird.

Look at the Pigeon's claws.
It does not have the ability to control them.
The claws just 'cross' according to how we hold/carry it.

See how the claws overlap each other?

The wing with missing feathers.

This is how the pigeon looks like lying on the left thigh.

In the end, Rane decided to name the pigeon Winter, as it looks like a molted bird, preparing for winter. =)