Head 'em Back North
In the past this column has been about critters, from my experiences of chasing critters down a muddy road with the rain pouring down on my head to my experience of getting the romantic gift of a goose for Valentine’s Day. In the past I have told you about the dogs, sheep, horse, geese, ducks and rabbits that live on our acreage. Believe it or not, we have some other critters that I haven’t told you about. Again before I go any further, let me say that these critters are Mr. M’s critters (as are most of the critters that live on what we are starting to refer to as Massey’s semi-wild game preserve.)
Mr. M’s fondness for this particular kind of critter started when he was growing up in Johnstown. “What are they?” you say… well they’re homing pigeons. No semi-wild game preserve would be complete without homing pigeons. After all if the sheep or rabbits get out of their confined area they aren’t likely to come home, but homing pigeons are smart enough to know where they belong.
Mr. M’s childhood hobby of pigeon collecting started again about ten months ago. It was ten months ago when one of Mr. M’s friends happened to mention that he had seventeen pigeons and one pigeon coop to get rid of because his neighbors were complaining about some of their nasty habits. Nuff said, before these pigeons knew what hit them they were sitting in the back of Mr. M’s famous pick-‘em-up truck (coop and all) on their way to the well known Massey shelter for homeless critters.
With seventeen homing pigeons and one coop, Mr. M could start reliving his childhood He could relive the days when he, his brother Don and their friend Harry would chase the pigeons around the alcohol plant in Johnstown. And besides, pigeons are smart birds…they know when to come home.
For ten months these pigeons hung around inside their coop, doing what pigeons do, just waiting for the day when the door was opened and they could show there stuff by flying away and then coming back home. Well, a week ago last Sunday was the big day. This was the day that Mr. M opened the door of the coop so the show could begin. When he opened the door, eight of these anxious little critters flew off into the wild blue yonder. Mr. M watched as they headed south. Soon they were just little black specks in the sky and then they disappeared. In fact they literally disappeared…they still haven’t come home. I suppose the temptation of heading south in March, the temptation of all the sunny beaches in Mexico was just too much for them to handle. They are probably sitting on some high rise hotel, doing what pigeons do, in some fancy resort area. I can’t say that I blame them, it would have to be a better life than sitting in a cold coop all day looking at a horse and a bunch of sheep.
Actually, it is a shame that these pigeons were so ungrateful as to leave for good because Mr. M and I had big plans for their future. We were planning to cross our pigeons with our friend Harry’s parrot named Sam. We would call these critters pigeons, then we would turn them loose and send them to various places with messages. Not messages banded to their legs but messages they could tell the person when they got there. You have to admit this is a unique idea. We have to think of some useful purpose for some of these critters. We figured the money we save on long distance alone would be enough for a nice well earned vacation in some fancy resort in Mexico.
I will tell you one thing, if we can manage to save up enough money for that vacation. (now that our plans have gone south) I am going to take along a…very large hat.
