We released Matilda today after almost 3 weeks in our spare bedroom. She has only one foot now but she’s managing well. The antibiotics have cleared any signs of infection and her remaining foot which was also swollen from the previous entanglement looks much better too.
It will be tough for her with just one foot but probably no harder than life had already become with the entanglement she’d been living with. It must have been very painful for some time. At least that source of pain is gone now.
We took her back to exactly the same spot we caught her and she seemed very excited to be home.
I think we sometimes assume animals would prefer the safety and ease of captivity but freedom and autonomy count for a great deal. The same can be said of humans. Would you want to spend your life in a jail cell because all your meals were provided? Most of us would not. We’d consider it a punishment.
I tried to give her as nice a space as I could while she recovered, with enough room to fly because I didn’t want her losing important flight muscles. But she remained wary of me throughout and was clearly glad to fly off and away today.
I even bought her a shower from Amazon, although she wasn’t particularly interested in using it. Maybe the sound of water running was soothing? What she did like was the sunshine. Whenever the sun shone into her cage, she would follow the patch of light as it moved over the course of the day.
Fortunately I know where she lives so can keep an eye on her and make sure she’s getting enough food. The vet weighed her when I took her two and a half weeks ago and even then she was a healthy 350g which is pretty good for a feral pigeon so she must be getting what she needs in the wild.
Leave a comment