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I'm Ace

From Palomacy: It's Pigeon Diplomacy
November 2023

With one injured food and my other foot that had become so infected it had fallen off, I then got grabbed by a hawk! I wrenched and struggled as hard as I could and amazingly – I got loose. Then someone omeone saw me huddled and terrified and called Palomacy and a volunteer took the call and reached out to another volunteer who came immediately to my rescue!

Pigeon Ace

I’m Ace. I’m one of more than 400 birds you have helped Palomacy to rescue this year. I had been struggling along on string-tangled feet about as long as I could. One foot was actually gone- it had dried up and fallen off after a long, painful string entanglement- and the other one, my “bad foot”, was totally tied up and infected. Walking was excruciating and I was getting weak from lack of food. People always think about a bird’s wings but we pigeons really depend on our feet too- we’re constantly foraging and launching and landing.

And then the worst suddenly happened: a hungry hawk swooped by and grabbed me! I was clutched tight- squeezed- in his strong, sharp talons. I was terrified and energized both. I wrenched and struggled as hard as I could and amazingly – I got loose. I fell to the ground hard, now with a broken leg and my whole tail ripped out, the feathers still gripped by the hawk, probably. But I was alive! I limp-scurried to hide under the nearest cover I could- a bush against a wall- and waited terrified the hawk would come back. Luckily, he didn’t but now what? I was hurting and stunned and helpless.

And that’s where you come in. Someone saw me huddled there and called Palomacy and a volunteer took the call and reached out to another volunteer who came immediately to my rescue. She took me to the bird hospital- Medical Center for Birds- and they took such good care of me! I got pain medicine, subcutaneous fluids, gavage feeding and antibiotics that first day. Then came the radiographs and eventually the surgery and steel pin to put my busted leg back together and they detangled and treated my mangled foot.

It was a lot and scary sometimes but mostly I was just incredibly surprised and relieved. They gave me food! I had clean water! They talked to me and oohed and ahhed about how tough I was to still be alive after all I had been through. And they are right. I am tough!

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