In a testament to her hardiness, she held her own and competed successfully for nearly a year.

Tink’s story is filled with drama. As a king pigeon, she was bred to be killed at the age of four weeks and served as somebody’s squab dinner but instead, she and a few other baby king pigeons were purchased alive from the poultry market. Unfortunately, once purchased, they were most likely “released” at a ceremony (a cruel and deadly thing to do). Having no place to go (king pigeons are domestic and cannot survive in the wild), they hid behind some bushes. Once again, her incredible luck kicked in and she and three other baby kings were found and taken to the San Francisco animal shelter before dogs, cats, raccoons, hawks, cars and/or mean people got a hold of them. After a week at the shelter, their time was up and they were scheduled to be killed for lack of adopters but instead, MickaCoo took them into foster care. Their foster mom named the four babies after the Teletubbies- Dipsy, Tinkie Winkie, Lala and Poe. Three strengthened and grew but little Lala didn’t survive. When Tinkie Winkie and Dipsy had matured, they were transferred to our foster flock housed in the extra large Wulf Aviary. (Poe stayed at the Pacifica aviary and has been adopted by her foster mom.) On a visit to the Wulf aviary in November, I noticed that Tink was sitting a lot- more than normal. I caught (which wasn’t easy) and checked her over. She was strong, clean, a healthy weight and appeared to be thriving. When I checked with her foster mom, I was told that Tink had been a “sitter” for about as long as she could remember. On December 23rd though, Tink didn’t look so good and her foster mom alerted me. I picked her up the next morning and we went to Medical Center for Birds where she was examined by Dr. Speer. Tink appears to have a slowly progressing neurological problem (perhaps from an old spinal injury) that is interfering with signals between her spinal cord and legs. She’s doing very well fostered indoors in a less demanding environment and is feeling better and gaining back some lost weight. She’s a lovely bird who needs a special home. She is happy to be alive.

Your support of MickaCoo saved her. Thank you.