mixed blessings

Yay - we get to close the office at 1 and get paid for the whole day.
Boo - Andrea is working till 6 so we can't leave for Viroqua till 7 anyway.

I actually said "do I have to go?" cuz I have stuff to do here and no real reason to go home.

Maybe I'll cut those other bodicii for eyelets then

*is sad*

I found an injured dove on the street outside my office. I think he bonked his head on the glass doors. He/she appears fully grown, and is sort of a soft grey/brown color with red eyes and white eyelids, a white and black ring around his neck and red legs. He doesn't have any visible injuries. He can fly up a few feet, which he did when we tried to approach him - and he promptly bonked his fool head on the doors again.

I waited about 10 minutes to see if he'd "shake it off", and when he didn't I picked him up (he sort-of-ran about 2 feet, but I was able to easily capture him). I went back up to the office where Melissa helped me find a box and a sweatshirt so he'd have a nice quiet place to recover.

There IS a wild bird hospital (Flint Creek) that has a branch at Northerly Island, but their voice mail says to put the bird in a box in a quiet place and then leave a message and one of their people will call you right back. But their voicemail box is full.

Animal Care and Control won't take him. They told me to call Flint Creek. (sigh - you see where this is going, don't you?)

I brought him home with me, and when I got off the bus I opened the box to see if he felt like flying. He just sat there.

I called my vet's office to see if they had any advice - they suggested trying to get a referral from the Fish and Wildlife Service, but after quite a few searches (most of which led back to the group that runs the Northerly Island facility) I've been able to find no licensed rehabbers nearer than Greyslake, a 45 minute drive even if I HAD a car. (And the I-Gos near me are booked)

So really all I can do is give him a nice quiet and dark place to rest for a few more hours, then see if he's well enough to make it on his own. I figured I can open the box and set it outside on the balcony - where he won't have to worry about ground-based predators - and hope he doesn't get beat up by the local pigeons.

Good thoughts for the little guy/girl are appreciated. I hope he's gonna be okay, or if a predator gets him that it is at least quick.

EDIT: A bit more Googling and I figured out that it's not an injured wild dove, it's a confused domestic escapee! He looks exactly like the pictures you find when you google "male ringneck dove". So I found a free half hour between I-Go Reservations and I'm going to take the little guy over to the Red Door shelter. They should be able to find somoene who can take proper care of him till they find his mommy or daddy. I'm also going to put a post on Craisglist and Petfinder as to where I'm taking him.

UPDATE - well, now we're not sure again. The guy at Red Door said he might be a Eurasian Collared Dove which looks a LOT like a ringneck and is moving into this area. He had the number to a "Bird Collision Hotline" (who knew?) and someone from that was going to call him back and tell him what to do. If it's a wild bird, they'll take care of it for a day or two and then release it. If it turns out to be domestic, then they'll try to find the owner. Either way the little guy is in far better hands than mine for now. AND I got to visit with Frisco for a few minutes before I had to run back to return the car.

That is quite enough excitement for today kthx.