To a Nameless Little Pidge I Barely Knew

[Insomniac]

This past weekend, my mom and I were driving one of our rescue dogs to his new adoptive family. It was rush hour and we were on a busy 6 lane road waiting at a red light. As the light turned green, a beautiful grizzled feral pigeon sitting just behind a car in an adjacent lane caught my eye. My mom and I immediately stepped into rescue mode and turned on our hazards, opened our doors, and began waving wildly at the drivers behind us. Thankfully, they were all reasonable people and allowed me to quickly run out and grab the obviously stunned Pidge, who made no effort to evade capture.

I got into the front seat, hugging the pigeon to my chest. Unusually, we had no box or kennel in the vehicle. We had removed them to make room for passengers at a protest the day before. I stroked his neck and spoke softly to him, trying to imitate the coos of my pigeons at home. He was obviously in shock, so still.

Five minutes later, rushing to the nearest vet, he started to shake his head and kick his legs, and in another five minutes, he was seizing. I continued to hold him and try to keep him comfortable, but a few seconds away from the vet, with the clinic in sight...he uttered some tortured sounding coos, went still, closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and died. He died in such pain. It was devastating. We took him to he vet anyways to be cremated. The only comfort I can get from this is that he wasn't struck repeatedly, he died in a warm place, with someone who cared about him and shed tears for him. He didn't deserve such a horrible death. Cars are no match for a little pigeon.

R.I.P. Little Pidge, I don't know how old you were or what you've been through, but I know you were unique and have left behind both a person, and probably other pigeons, that love and appreciate you. I'm glad you didn't suffer the fate of so many by being completely disregarded on the road.