Tag: saved

June 10th – Good deed for the day, though I don’t know if it did any good.

Slipping through Oldbury, something grey moving in the water caught the eye, and stopping to investigate I found that it was a sodden, floating and stricken wood pigeon that had somehow fallen in the water, and couldn’t get out. Although floating on it’s outstretched wings, it looked tired and frightened and was clearly going to die if it couldn’t get out.

Forty minutes later, using a spare inner tube as a gentle lasso, I finally got the struggling, terrified bird onto the towpath. It was saturated, and exhausted.

I placed him carefully in a patch of sun to dry out in the undergrowth. A couple of boaters nearby said they’d keep an eye on it.

I think it probably died: It was so wet, so shocked, so tired. But I couldn’t leave it to drown without trying. Hopefully, foxy didn’t find lunch, the sun was enough to dry him and the grass around provided enough nutrition to get him to safety.

Hopefully. Call me a fool, but I couldn’t leave it there.