Pickle and Preston 2 (original) (2023) Malerei von Elodie M. Richard

« Here is the story of my two rescue pigeons, Pickle & Preston. My name is Sara Janoff & I live in New York City. I have always loved pigeons & after finding an injured one, I came to know about the organization The Wild Bird Fund, which is a wildlife rehabilitation clinic here that specializes in returning wild birds to their natural habitats or finding homes for birds that cannot be rereleased (if a legal species). Being in NYC, a majority of the patients that are at Wild Bird Fund are pigeons. I was able to become a volunteer there & learned how to take care of pigeons.

At the clinic, there was an adorable & sweet bird named Pickle. She had been found by an art student inside of her dorm’s air conditioning vent as a nestling & was brought to the clinic. For some reason, she did not become “wild” at all & instead she grew very attached to humans. I got to see her & take care of her everyday & she was extremely friendly & cute. She was too friendly & domesticated to be releasable, so I decided I would adopt her.

As pigeons are flock animals & I am a preschool teacher who has a busy schedule out of the house, I thought I would not be home enough to give Pickle enough attention, so I talked to the manager of the clinic about adopting another non-releasable bird to be a mate for her. What the manager did was hilarious: she lined up the carriers of different non-releasable birds in front of Pickle & let her walk around in front of them, like an episode of The Bachelorette! There was one bird who had been found on a construction site, covered in tar, who had a problem with his wing & did not fly well enough to be successful in the wild, but could have a very happy life in a home. This is the bird that Pickle chose & they started to spend all of their time together during the clinic’s free-fly time. I renamed that bird Preston, & I brought both of them home.

As soon as I got them home, they started cuddling, preening each other, took nice warm baths, explored, landed on my head, & have been my best friends ever since. I love them so much. They pretty much have free range of my apartment & live a very spoiled life with endless seeds, warm baths, sunshine, & lots of cozy nest spots. They love sitting together & cooing. They bring me endless joy & their happiness is my happiness. I’m so glad I am able to give them this peaceful, full life. This coming February, 2024, will be their 5 year adoption anniversary. Most pigeons in the wild only life for about 3-5 years, but in domestic situations they can live for 20 or more. I hope Pickle & Preston can live a very long & peaceful life with me. « 

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