Empty Nest

I am sad to say that I let so much time pass before posting, that most of you won't even know that that I had a border in my balcony barbecue pit until you read this post. Mu was walking in the bazaar when he saw some boys pulling out the tail feathers of a poor little creature with an injured wing. Of course he yelled at the little boys who handed over the bird. Mu caught a taxi back to my place ignoring the driver's puzzled glances... He must have thought Mu was pretty hard up to contemplate pigeon pie.

Anyway, Mu made it a little nest using paper, dried leaves from my Yucca plants and fed it water and bulgur from little Turkish saucers (don't worry, they remained on the balcony... no amount of bleach would convince me to reemploy them for tea service). Many people, including Pambette's mom who was visiting from Greece, came to visit. Most were not quite so enchanted as P's mom with Mu's "Kurdish pigeon." Truth be told, I was also not so pleased to be harboring a "flying rat" (as my mom affectionately calls pigeons). Anyway, late last week, Mu took the little thing to the animal hospital where it will stay until it recovers and then be set free. (My attempts to medicate the wing failed as the bird ate the medicine off and deposited 2 days worth of bright green presents all over my balcony). My only regret at the bird being gone is that I didn't take the photo that I promised Pambette's mother (as my camera is still broken). However, a little Internet searching for an Iraqi pigeon with brown throat markings and a slender black beak led me to the picture above of a laughing dove. I hope the wing has mended and Mu's laughing dove is laughing somewhere happier than the hospital.