Guest Post by Dion Campbell

Spotted huddling alone in a dreary doorway in bustling downtown San Francisco, a tiny, speckled pigeon faced an uncertain fate. Most of her delicate pink toes were being painfully strangled by tightly wound human hair, and her feet were bound together so inextricably by the same debris that she could no longer get off the ground. Commonly seen in feral city pigeons, this was a bad case of “string-foot.” Her beautifully mottled white plumage was unrecognizably grey, soiled, and completely bedraggled from being grounded near the grimy urban sidewalks. She was running out of time as the painful infection in her toes set in and thirst and hunger further weakened her, depleting whatever reserves she had left. She had no choice but to sit in the safest place she could get to and wait for whatever came next.

The sun was setting over the bay, but just as darkness began to envelop the emptying city streets and shadows crept ominously into the nooks and crannies, a beacon of hope emerged when a kind passerby noticed her. A compassionate soul, moved by her plight, contacted Palomacy for help. A single text message with a location and photo was all it took and the call went out to local rescue volunteers for immediate assistance.

She didn’t have to wait long before kind hands were scooping her up and a gentle voice was promising her she was going to be okay. Thankfully, a member of Palomacy’s Rescue Team was already close by and was on the scene before opportunistic nocturnal predators would almost certainly show up to harm her, as defenseless as she was. Her rescuers called her Esther, the namesake of the protagonist in Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar.” While Esther Greenwood’s narrative is more psychologically complex, Esther the Pigeon’s story is a more literal tale of overcoming societal constraints and finding a will to survive in an indifferent world.

Safe at home, not far up the hill from where she had almost given up hope, Esther was freed from the majority of the oppressive, binding debris wound around her toes and feet and was provided with a soft, cozy bed to snuggle into. Light pain medication, a healthy seed mix, and clean water were given to her make her comfortable, and transport was arranged to world-class avian vet, Medical Center for Birds, to begin her journey to recovery.

Not every pigeon has an obvious origin story, and just like so many others, Esther’s story will always remain a bit of a mystery. Petite, mostly white, and gorgeously speckled like a domestic pigeon abandoned to the street, but with the feisty wildness and grit of a city-hardened feral, Esther likely had no hope outside of Palomacy’s intervention. Not wild enough for a wildlife center, and not domestic enough for a local humane shelter, Esther had virtually no support system in place. This is exactly why Palomacy exists!

In the fading twilight on Geary Street, Esther’s story unfolded as a testament to the power of compassion and the difference one moment of kindness can make when it is amplified by the efforts of the amazing people who make up Palomacy. She is now healing well from much needed toe surgery at home with her foster family, including other rescued pigeons. She is fierce, getting stronger by the day, and slowly learning to trust those who care for her.