I had the privilege of witnessing a truly heroic act yesterday. When my big dog Ruby and I entered my bird room on our way to go out the back door, Ruby happened to come between special needs King pigeon Freddie and her mate Freckles. Ruby’s very good, she doesn’t approach the birds, and she was stopped with Freddie between her and the back door, but she is still scary to the birds (some more than others). Freckles was safe. He was behind Ruby and had the whole length of the bird room behind him to retreat to but instead, he made an incredibly courageous choice to forgo his own security to rejoin his mate Freddie. He is a big, heavy King Pigeon and he launched up from the floor, sailed over Ruby (barely clearing her head) and came down in the “danger zone” by his mate Freddie’s side. It was an awesome moment to witness. It was an heroic act. Ruby and I backed up and went out the garage way instead so as to leave this devoted couple together undisturbed. As I left the bird room, I watched Freckles escort his hobbly mate back to their cage and they spent the whole morning snuggling. Freckles chose to risk his life to protect Freddie’s. Love is strong.