# Animals and a girl



## JackKnife (Sep 18, 2012)

Well, everyone else is posting pics, so I felt the need to as well. They're nothing professional. It's just, every once in a while, I feel like even my little digital camera pulls off a very pleasing shot.

If anything, I guess I just want to show off my pets and one of my little cousin that I thought came out very nicely.

The dogs are actually my aunt's, but I see them daily and walk them with her, so they have their place in my pictures folder as well.

Edit: Let's try this again.






This is Looksie, my older pigeon, who suffers from PPMV and cannot fly - but don't tell her that.





This is Nibbler, my other pigeon. She enjoys flying around the house, perching on peoples' heads and shoulders, and taking long baths.





This is Stella, my tangerine leopard gecko. She has been featured in the local newspaper for her stunning smile.





This is Bucky, short for Buckaroo. He's an older fella who enjoys barking at everything, even the wind and the clouds.





This is Princess, a border collie/labrador cross. She enjoys long runs in the park and eating toys.


----------



## Gumby (Sep 18, 2012)

Do you need help with your picture posting?


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 18, 2012)

And finally, this is Ayla, my four-year-old cousin. She will pose for you whether you have a camera out or not.


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 18, 2012)

Gumby said:


> Do you need help with your picture posting?


Thanks, I think I figured out a workaround... I had them posted, but one of them is longer and stretched the page out and I didn't want to annoy everyone. I think the thumbnails look okay!


----------



## Gumby (Sep 18, 2012)

Glad you got it sorted. They do look great, I love how you included their personalities alongside the pics. And yes, Stella does have a stunning smile.


----------



## Namba (Sep 18, 2012)

Haha! I actually love pigeons; they're a lot smarter than people give them credit for.


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 18, 2012)

Namba said:


> Haha! I actually love pigeons; they're a lot smarter than people give them credit for.



I will never get tired of hearing people say that. They get such an undeservedly bad rap.

As an aside, I realized I am very dumb and was over-complicating attaching images to my posts. I have re-attached them and I think they look a lot better now.


----------



## HKayG (Sep 19, 2012)

I actually love that you have pigeons - how did she become unable to fly?


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 19, 2012)

PPMV (pigeon paramyxovirus) is a virus that's very contagious within pigeon flocks. Looksie used to be a wild pigeon, so she hung out with other flocks outside and I suppose she must've picked it up somewhere. Strangely enough, her mate never showed any signs of it. It's characterized by involuntary movements, like her head turning upside-down and sideways and her being unable to stop herself from walking in circles repeatedly. She tries to fly, to get exercise, but usually just ends up doing tight circles barely a foot off the ground and crashing into the furniture.


----------



## Namba (Sep 20, 2012)

JackKnife said:


> PPMV (pigeon paramyxovirus) is a virus that's very contagious within pigeon flocks. Looksie used to be a wild pigeon, so she hung out with other flocks outside and I suppose she must've picked it up somewhere. Strangely enough, her mate never showed any signs of it. It's characterized by involuntary movements, like her head turning upside-down and sideways and her being unable to stop herself from walking in circles repeatedly. She tries to fly, to get exercise, but usually just ends up doing tight circles barely a foot off the ground and crashing into the furniture.


Aawwww  Poor thing.


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 20, 2012)

Well, as I type, she's currently throwing a small stuffed Pokemon toy in the air and across the floor... despite her condition, I think she's learned to have fun with life.


----------



## Potty (Sep 20, 2012)

I'm going to be the bad guy here... I like pigeons, so long as they are plucked and in my cooking pot. I can't imagine having one as a pet.

But yes they are very clever. They will land right next to me when I'm without any form of firearm, but the second I'm 'packing heat' they spot me a mile off and I can't get close. I've had to resort to covert tactics which requires a trench coat and a cunning one liner which goes something like;

*Pulls gun out from inside coat and aims down barrel* "Do you feel clucky punk? Well? Coo ya?"


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 20, 2012)

Potty said:


> I'm going to be the bad guy here... I like pigeons, so long as they are plucked and in my cooking pot. I can't imagine having one as a pet.


They're a different pet, to be sure, but I enjoy showing people just how loving and intelligent they can be. Looksie will show visible distress in the evenings if she is not held, petted, and cuddled with for about 30 minutes before bedtime. She will take it out on me in the morning if we have missed snuggle time the night previous.

Nibbler, being able to fly, is more wont to perch on shoulders and heads and request transit across the house when she's feeling particularly lazy. Otherwise, she will sit on your shoulder, read books with you, kiss your ear, and lay eggs for you every month without fail.

There is just such a problem with people equating these birds with anything more than vermin or dumb street birds because no one has ever taken the time to study them in a different light. I like to think these two chose me and I'm happy they have, because I've learned so much from them.


----------



## Potty (Sep 20, 2012)

How did you end up with them as pets? (nice pictures by the way, I won't mention how I usually get a close up of a pigeon) And what do you do with the eggs? Eat them?

I live in the country so I deal mostly with woodpigeon. Don't see many feral where I live.


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 20, 2012)

Potty said:


> How did you end up with them as pets? (nice pictures by the way, I won't mention how I usually get a close up of a pigeon) And what do you do with the eggs? Eat them?
> 
> I live in the country so I deal mostly with woodpigeon. Don't see many feral where I live.


These were both wild birds at one time, but I'm the type that feeds everyone who comes to my yard. When I lived in an apartment, they came to my balcony and used my barbecue tarp for a nesting spot. The barbecue didn't work anyway - I was just too lazy to throw it out - so I didn't care. I would put out dishes of sunflower seeds for them and they loved it. They would have their babies and move on.

Then, there were flocks. I decided to reduce feeding so as to avoid their congregation. Only a select few would remain and they would be my feeders, who would get the food when they came, and no others would. I did this for roughly seven years, through multiple generations, and saw hundreds of different colours that these birds could come in - another point that I find very beautiful about them. There were rust-coloured ones, white and black, black with white-tipped wings, brown, silver, ones with long, feathered feet, some with large, intimidating ceres, and everything in between.

Looksie came to my balcony suffering from her PPMV. She was following her mate, a little grey-and-black pigeon, to the food. In the air, she was tossing and turning and nearly hitting the side of the building. When she landed on the balcony rail, she fell off once and he brought her back again about ten minutes later. Long story short, he left her here, as if he somehow knew there was no way she'd survive on her own, and I took her in. She's been my guard pigeon ever since.

Nibbler was found outside, on the apartment steps, in the middle of a Canadian January night at -30C. She was very quickly freezing to death. She would be dead today if not for an elderly man who lived in the apartment that pointed her out to me as I came home from work that evening. He pointed at her, asking if I'd 'seen the bird', and I scooped her up. Her feathers were slick with ice and her eyes were discharging fluid that froze in a rim around them. Within a half hour inside my jacket, she had thawed out, but was still visibly shivering, from a mix of fear and the cold. She was also suffering from PPMV, but got better. She learned to live with her human companions - that is, she learned to coo whenever she wanted to be held or a different kind of food in her dish or just attention in general - and now considers a friend I live with to be her mate. We thought Nibbler was a boy, because of her very full-of-herself, boisterous personality, but that changed as soon as she laid eggs.

Eggs are best left with the mother, even though they aren't fertile. She sits on them for about half the day. If I were to take the eggs away, she would lay more and more and more to make up for it and lead herself into a severe calcium deficiency. So, I leave them with her until she gets tired of them (ie, figures out they're not going to hatch and rides my friend around the house all day instead), then remove and dispose of them. She lays more about a week later and the cycle continues.


----------



## tepelus (Sep 20, 2012)

Stella has got to be the fattest leopard gecko I have ever seen. She is adorable, and I love her colors! I have had mine (a high yellow) for I believe 12 years now, maybe longer. I can't remember. She has gotten quite thin and doesn't eat much, and I have to hand feed her crickets because she can't catch them by herself. She's very tame and only bites when she mistakes my finger for a cricket.


----------



## JackKnife (Sep 20, 2012)

tepelus said:


> Stella has got to be the fattest leopard gecko I have ever seen. She is adorable, and I love her colors! I have had mine (a high yellow) for I believe 12 years now, maybe longer. I can't remember. She has gotten quite thin and doesn't eat much, and I have to hand feed her crickets because she can't catch them by herself. She's very tame and only bites when she mistakes my finger for a cricket.


Poor thing. Is it just her age that's crippling her or could there be an underlying issue? I had a baby leo that couldn't feed herself either and she turned out to have parasites. Her breeder 'had no idea'.

Having one of these little guys/girls for 12+ years is quite a feat, though. I also have a fire-bellied newt named Charlie who I've had for over 13 years now. He has issues walking and swimming, and so must live in very shallow, constantly cycled water, but he's a wonderful little fellow who's always happy to run up to the front of his tank and wave at people in the room.


----------

