For the Fun of It - Saving a Dove

what do you do when you find a bird

Nov 12, 2023

Hi! My name is Ashlyn Anstee, and I tell stories with words and pictures. Sometimes, that’s picture books (like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Select “Hedgehog”), or graphic novels (my series “Shelby and Watts”), and sometimes it’s animation (I’ve directed at places like Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network).

This column, “For the Fun of It”, will also have words and pictures. Sometimes it will be stories, or how-tos, or thoughts. A little bit of everything. Hope you enjoy!

Earlier this week, Grant found an injured bird in our driveway. It’s not the first critter we’ve found (and unfortunately, due to our feral cats, usually they are not living). This bird though, was not visibly hurt, but it wasn’t flying off.

Identification

First things first, we went off to identify the bird. It wasn’t a pigeon or something recognizable to me. After googling “grey bird with black stripe on neck”, and combing through the images, it was identified: A Ring-Necked Dove! Great. Now what??

We ferociously googled- birds are delicate. We needed to protect the bird from our cats. We surrounded it with recycling bins. We didn’t want to move it too much, because the internet was telling us that it might just be dizzy and fly off eventually. The internet was also telling us to “end its suffering” but Grant is a much sweeter person than me, and we decided to save it.

A few hours passed, and the bird didn’t seem to get better. Also, Nala was attacking them. It was not ideal. She is a very good hunter but this is not the time!!!!!!!

Help

We decided to try to find help. Animal control in the city would probably not be that useful (and would maybe “end its suffering”). I found Wild Birds Unlimited and gave them a call. They gave me a phone number for a man called Bruce, who specializes in “pigeons, doves, and raptors”. Tentatively, I called. A man picked up- yep, he can take the dove. He texted me an address.

Wildlife rehabbers

Licensed wildlife rehabilitation workers are some of the kindest people. For one, they can’t charge for their services- they rely on donations to fund food and medicine for these animals. They often work out of their homes. You need to bring the animals to them!

Dovey

We packed up the dove in a big ol box with a towel, and I drove an hour to Carson (South-East of our home in Mid-City, Los Angeles). I pulled into a parking lot, and Bruce came out. Immediately, I knew we’d made the right choice. He tenderly pulled the dove from the box and inspected them. He kissed the bird on the head- he’d tube feed it. Here’s a bit more about Bruce:

I gave Bruce some money but hope to donate some more once work starts up again. It’s always such a wonder to see someone with such care for vulnerable animals. I hope our little dove heals up okay.

If you want to donate to Bruce, here’s his card.

I do hope there’s no more visitors in our driveway though. It’s not exactly the safest spot for a little creature.

I should probably change this header to “blog of the week” at some point, because I’m switching up between websites now! I’m too rebellious to be constrained by the rules that I have created for myself.

One of my favorite regularly visited websites is Well Appointed Desk- particularly their “Link Love” feature! It was actually the inspiration for adding this part to this column. I love exploring different blogs and going down new rabbit holes, and since it’s become harder to find things on the internet, linking is the best way to do it.

I came to Well Appointed Desk from the fountain pen community, but they also showcase art supplies, pencils, and tons of other fun things. They’re worth a bookmark and a regular visit.

Is it time for a kitten update? Since getting our new kitten, we’ve officially renamed her Luppy (well officially, Luppyluppy). It’s from this exchange with an NPC (non-player-character) from Sonic the Hedgehog (colloquially called Sonic 06). I love Sonic 06- so much that there’s a whole episode of the Sonic Weekly podcast where I talk about it.