Blossom came to my house by way of suggestion from MickaCoo volunteer Cheryl Dickinson. See, one of my pet pigeons, Mr. Stinker, whom I love very much, had been without a mate and very sad and lonely since his girlfriend, Pearl, a large Show King pigeon, passed away. I was looking for a special needs female pigeon to hopefully bond with Mr. Stinker and Cheryl thought Blossom might be the one.

I brought Blossom home and she and Mr. Stinker instantly became a couple. They followed each other everywhere, hooting and kissing away. I was so thrilled. I must tell you at this point, Blossom seemed to hate people. She got a certain look in her eye like Joan Crawford and would growl, bite, and slap if a human got too close. Although she was quite formidable and had no interest in me, she won my heart even so.

Blossom came in with painful swollen feet and I worked with my vet to treat her. You could tell by the way she was walking that she was in a lot of discomfort. We put her on antibiotics. They cleared up her feet issue but then she got a bump at her wing joint, though still on the antibiotics. (Blossom had paratyphoid.) We switched her onto different antibiotics to take care of the wing but a few days into the new medications she began to act sluggish. A few days later I noticed she wasn’t really pooping and she had a lump on her belly that seemed to grow. I had a real bad feeling about this and couldn’t sleep Sunday night. Monday morning I got out of bed and was trying to find help to get her to the vet while I went to work. The more I stuck around trying to find help, the more Blossom seemed to be fading. I skipped work and the wonderful leader of the rescue group MickaCoo, Elizabeth Young, ditched all her chores for the day and drove us out to Oakley to the Medical Center for Birds.

It was the first time Blossom and I had been there (I took Mr. Stinker too because he was so worried). They were fantastic. We got a terrific vet named Dr. Brenna Fitzgerald. She poked and prodded and xrayed and puzzled over Blossom. There were so many things it could be. Finally with a sonogram, Dr Fitzgerald saw the evidence that this was a strangulated intestine poking through a hernia. We admitted Blossom into the hospital and they performed life-saving surgery the next day. Dr. Fitzgerald was able to untie Blossom’s knotted bowel, restore function to her GI tract and repair the hernia. Blossom had to stay at the hospital for a few days but when she came home she was joyous.

She is recovered now. She had to stay away from Mr. Stinker until she healed but she is a happy girl. The bird that used to growl at me now gives me kisses when I give her medicine and makes happy rhythmic grunting noises, sort of like purring, when I scratch her head. I love her and have the adoption papers in the mail so that she can stay with us forever.

I’m telling you this story to make you aware of the wonderful work MickaCoo does and the great pets available for adoption. I took a special needs bird with health issues but there are plenty of loving healthy birds that have been rescued from certain death that need a home. If you aren’t able to adopt, please think about making a tax deductible donation.

Blossom & Mr. Stinker