Humphrey and the case of the disappearing wood pigeon

Well what a kerfuffle on Wednesday evening.

I’d just gone upstairs to fetch something and out of my bedroom window I could see these magpies flying across and back.  And the noise!  Screeching and squawking fit to wake any sleeper.  Then I looked down and saw…

Humphrey.  But not only Humphrey but another of the neighbourhood cat mafia stalking towards the house.  So I thought must stop the fight and dashed downstairs and out of the back door.  Completely forgetting that I’d taken off my sandals.  So bare feet hit the bricks outside the house.  Ouch.

First I shoo off the other cat.  Then I check on what Humphrey is doing.  Which is sitting.  Only sitting.  I’m thinking what a whuss letting me fight his battles when I see… FEATHERS.

Oh no I think and shoo Humphrey away as well and turn to look again at the feathers hoping that I won’t see a dead bird waiting for me.  Well no there isn’t a dead bird… it’s a live one cornered behind the plant pots.  Now what do I do I think.  I look more carefully and this bird looks to be in shock.  And appears to be damaged at the top of its right wing.

I stand and scratch my head.  What do I do now?  Do I try and pick it up – difficult since it’s behind the pots.  If the wing is damaged it can’t fly so what chances does it have.  I make a slight move towards it and it scutters away from me.  On the ground.  Definitely grounded otherwise it would have made a leap into the air.

Now I’m in a moral dilemma again.  Can’t pick it up.  Do I leave it to recover or think the unthinkable and bag it and suffocate it… from the best possible motives of course.  Cowardly I decide to leave it, having checked neither of the cats is anywhere nearby.

By the time I got back upstairs though I’d changed my mind and decided I had to do something to help it.  Found my shoes, went downstairs armed with a plastic bag in case of need.

No pigeon.  Then I notice Humphrey in one of the borders.  Looking intently at something.  Go to check and there’s the pigeon.  I shoo Humphrey one way down the border and the pigeon goes the other way.  It ends up part way between the border and the fence.  No way can I get through the rose bush behind which it’s taken refuge.

Say a little prayer over it and go back inside.  From our landing window I can see over the garden and the grass of the residential complex next to us.  In the time it’s taken me to get back upstairs, having checked on whereabouts of cats, the pigeon is now on the far side of the complex just sitting.

And that’s where I had to leave it.

So what was on my mind as soon as I woke up Thursday morning?  Of course… the pigeon!  Went out onto the landing and looked out.   No pigeon.  No feathers that I could see…. just space.

When I finally went downstairs I checked all round the garden and found nothing.  No heaps of feathers, no innards, nothing.

So was it the magpies which did the damage?  Maybe the pigeon was near a magpie nest.  The magpies are forever dive-bombing all the other birds around the area.

Maybe this time it wasn’t Humphrey… he certainly didn’t struggle to stay near the pigeon.  Maybe I should call in Hercule Poirot to solve the case!