El Suicidio de la Paloma Blanca

My brother went out this morning to buy new tires for his truck and discovered a beautiful snow-white dove huddled up against the front door. It's left wing was injured and it was unable to fly. It walked far enough away to feel comfortable as he passed by and then went into the lawn to eat bugs.

I called around to a number of rescue shelters for birds and was finally told (by an otherwise pleasant woman who nevertheless asked if it was a dove or a pigeon and when I said "dove," snarkily asked if I knew the difference which, turns out, didn't make any difference, although I do (know)) that, after consultation with the vet, the bird was considered "exotic" not native (whether dove or pigeon) and would therefor, if we brought it in, be euthanized.

Since this was not the point of the exercise, I asked for alternatives and was told we could always take it to a vet. There were two problems with this. One, we would then be liable for the bill (for what was probably someone else's pet) and, Two, we would then have a pet of our own since Florida law forbids exotic animals from being released into the wild. See, Pythons. Two was the deal breaker.

By this time, the bird had wandered away from the front door so I went looking for it and found it huddled up against the north side of the house mostly protected from the light drizzle. I said, "Well, it looks like there's not much we can do for you." It looked me right in the eye. I think it understood.

I went back inside and the dove went back out into the lawn to eat some more. A few minutes later I looked out the front window and there was a flattened white lump in the middle of the road.

Quick, clean, no mess to speak of, and no doubt better than being attacked and eaten by a cat or hawk. and much better than being euthanized by a rescue shelter.