Hey fellow FMLer's;
 
Just thought I'd pass on yet another bird/ferret story.  Some years ago
when we had our first batch of fuzzsters I had the opportunity to babysit,
of all things, a pidgeon that a friend of mine had rescued from a local
park where there was a mass extermination being carried out by the local
city crew (I don't know which department).  My friend was so horrified by
the shooting of the pidgeons that she just had to try and save what she
could.  All she managed was a youngster before being chased out of the
park.
 
The pidgeon adapted well to high rise living and learned to fly to one's
shoulder when it wanted attention.  Some months later is when I got the
opportunity to look after this little squab.  At the time I had 3 males and
1 very smart female.  I only had to look after this pidgeon for a weekend.
All went well the Friday night and all day Saturday.  Sunday morning passed
without incident.  I was very careful to be supervising them all when the
ferts were out of their play room and into the rest of the house.  The
pidgeon had his "nest box" on top of a book shelf, way too high for a
ferret to get to.  I was seated on the couch watching ferret mayhem at its
finest.  The pidgeon must have felt like it was left out of all the fun so
he flew down to my shoulder.  No problem.  Seconds later Tasha (female)
literally flew up my arm and snatched the poor pidgeon and took her to the
floor.  Within seconds the other 3 boys were on the pidgeon too.  I threw
myself to the pidgeons aid and was pulling ferrets off her left and right.
To my utter amazement the only mark she had on her was a small nip under
her wing.  For all the screaming and screeching and fur flying I thought I
had a dead pidgeon for sure.  All of this happened in mere seconds.  It was
a blur of fur.
 
Now, I'm not telling you all this story to perpetuate the killer instinct
in ferrets.  Whether they have it or not I am not here to judge as animal
instincts are an animal instincts.  (They have yet to kill ANYTHING in my
presence!) But I truly believe that they caught the pidgeon's smell and it
was attractive because it was different.  The fact that more damage had not
been done to this little pidgeon indicated to me that they were very curious
and were perhaps looking for something else to entertain themselves with.
The fluttering and chirping were brand new sounds to the ferrets.  Call me
naive if you wish.
 
The little pidgeon went home that evening and lived a few more months with
my friends before taking flight to visit pidgeon friends elsewhere.  After
checking in a few more times (I guess to say goodbye) it flew off never to
be seen again.  Perhaps it was looking for its new ferret friends!  ;-)
 
Betty "The friend to all creatures great and small"
[Posted in FML issue 2337]