Ope!

One (very early) morning I walked out our door into the deck on a June day in 2020 and a bird flew to my shoulder. Seriously! A pigeon came out of nowhere and landed in my shoulder and instantly started cooing. Luckily, my husband was there to witness this bizarre event otherwise NO ONE would have believed me!

I named him Galileo and he spent the next few months in our house, hanging out in the garage (perched on the bike stand, safely tucked out-of-sight from predators), riding on the handle bars of a mountain bike while cruising down the driveway, hung out in the barn with me while I did chores, and loved walking back and forth on our deck railing.

The day Matt and I loaded up the truck to head up the Northshore to get some R&R, Galileo flew onto the hood of the truck as we drove down the driveway…it was like he was telling us ‘don’t go! Take me with you!’ Eventually he flew away and when he came home, Galileo wasn’t there. I was heartbroken. Where did he go? Did a hawk get him? Was he looking for us? Or did HE go back home?

I think about him all the time. Galileo was a gift that summer and I have never looked at pigeons the same since. Galileo is forever in my heart.