Failure as a Bird Savior

I tried to be a savior, but I failed.

I went outside this morning and noticed there was a pigeon sitting on the ground on my front porch. The little guy looked odd, just sitting there. I walked over closer to take a look and quickly realized that something was wrong. The pigeon was just sitting there looking at me, and didn't flinch or try to move or fly away.

I thought maybe he had flown into the front window and was dazed, so I figured I'd run my errands and give him time to recover. When I got back, the pigeon was still there. He had moved into the dirt and mud of my flower bed, but he was still just sitting there not moving. I got closer again and noticed he was still breathing, although it looked like he was breathing hard. His eyes were alert as well as he was following my every move. He seemed more alert than when I left on my errands so I thought I'd give him a little more time to recover from whatever was bugging him and see what happens.

After another half hour, which gave him almost an hour and a half total, he we still just sitting there and not moving. At this point, I was concerned for the little guy, so I hopped on the internet to look up what to do. I found several sites that had information on how to care for injured birds, some sites specifically about pigeons. I also found a link and called a local animal rescue place to get advice, which gave the same advice as the internet sites I found.

So here's what I did. I got an empty shoebox and cut some holes in the lid for air. I put a soft, cotton towel in the shoebox for padding and warmth. I then used some work gloves, just in case the bird had some kind of disease (i.e. West Nile), and gently picked the guy up and put him in the shoebox. All the advice I found said to give him a warm, dark, quiet place to relax and recover. If he had banged against the window he could have suffered a concussion. The dark, quiet spot to recover would help increase blood flow to his head and thus improve his recovery. I even put a small ramekan of water in the box with him in case he was thirsty.

So I did this and put the shoebox in the house for a while. After a little over an hour, with constant checking back to see how he was doing, I thought he might be getting back to normal. His breathing was more constant and steady, his eyes looked more alert, and he was trying to move a little bit. I thought he was on the way to improvement.

He still looked out of it though, so I got a little dropper and fed him some of the water. He was lapping it up quickly, so again, I thought this was a sign of him feeling better. As I continued to check on him, my hopes of him recovering got worse. His breathing got a lot slower and his attempts at movement were less and less. Before long, the movement stopped as did the breathing. His eye movement, which was constant and active the whole time, had stopped completely, with one eye closed and the other nearly closed. At this point, it was evident that the poor guy didn't make it.

I waited a little while longer, hoping he would still bounce back, but to no avail. With the gloves back on, I picked him up to look at him better, and quickly noticed he had more than just a concussion from banging into a window. It was easy to see that his neck was broken, as it was at a very odd angle and on one side I could feel the little bones bulging out and that was likely what caused his demise.

I was initially hoping that I could be some big savior and nurse the bird back to health and send him on his way. But it didn't work out that way. I guess I can only hope that I at least made him warm and comfy during his final moments and alleviated some of the pain.

Too good to be true? Probably

It's funny how often the phrase "it's too good to be true" applies. Even on those times when you think it can't apply this time, this is legit. More often than not, it really does apply.

I had a voucher for a free night's room at a golf resort and spa place about two hours from St. Louis in Illinois. The deal had a special offer with it saying you could stay a second night with a round of golf for just $50. Sounded great. Drive over, stay one night, play golf the next day, stay the second night and it would only cost $50 plus whatever taxes applied. I was looking forward to a couple days off work and out of town to play some golf and relax. I watched the weather, picked out my days for this week, then called to book the reservation.

Then reality sunk in with the details and the whole thing unraveled. Turns out I was being penalized for being single and coming to stay by myself.

According to the reservation person, the whole package was based on double occupancy. They wanted you to come with someone else, and if you didn't, and came by yourself like I was doing, you would still be charged for the second person. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but that was the catch that made the offer too good to be true.

Here's the breakdown as the lady explained it to me. The first night would be free for the room, plus a $6 resort fee per person, and based on double occupancy it would cost me $12 for the free night - not unreasonable and I could live with that. The deal with the second night and golf basically broke down to paying for the room and getting a free round of golf. Still not unreasonable. But, and there's always a but, the room would be based again on double occupancy. So, instead of paying $49.95 for the second night for myself, I would pay that much for me, and that much again for the invisible second person with me, which would be $99.90. Plus, there was still the $6 per person resort fee even for that second night, and for the double occupancy charge, would really be $12. Plus, there would also be any taxes involved that would have to be paid for, and those would apply for both nights, and roughly cost about $10 extra per night. Now, the free golf thing was still the kicker, until they explained the free golf was for the greens fee, you still had to pay for the cart rental, which was $19.

So, what I initially looked at and thought okay, two nights, one round of golf, $50 plus any taxes, etc, turned out to be a lot more. Adding it all up, it would be:
Resort fee, first night = $12
Resort fee, second night = $12
Room for second night (double occupancy) = $99.90
Cart fee for golf round = $19
Estimate of Taxes for 2 nights in room = $20 ($10 per night)

Total cost: $162.90

That doesn't include the gas money to get there, plus I would have to eat out the whole time, and you know the prices at the resort place would be astronomical.

So much for a nice, quick, cheap couple days of hotels and golf.

And to think the whole time I knew it was too good to be true, I just refused to believe it because I was blinded by two words included in the deal: free golf.

Needless to say, that trip was cancelled and I will be staying at home and trying to find a place to play golf around here for most of the week.