Homer

I'd like you to meet a new friend of ours. I've named him "Homer". Homer is a homing pigeon, and obviously not a very good one because we think he's lost. We think Homer thinks we are his home. Homer showed up at our place about 3 days ago and he won't leave. We didn't feed him right away because we didn't want him to get too comfortable here, but it's been 3 days, and well, we're suckers for bulging eyes and a tiny beak. So, Ashley re-filled our suet feeders with suet in one and torn up pieces of bread in the other, because everyone knows that all the pigeons in movies are always gobbling up bread crumbs, so they must love them (Ashley's words, not mine), and she stuck them in the ground right below where Homer was sitting. Then Homer moved to a different roof. I wanted to giggle, but I refrained. She also filled up a small shallow bowl with water for him to drink. Funny part was, the not-so-tame farm cats found it and started to lap it up. Hopefully Homer is smart enough to stay up on the roof tops where he has spent most of his time lately, or he's cat bait.

I've been thinking about poor Homer from his point of view. One day he's at home happily flying around and then he takes off. It's a beautiful day for flying and he circles around and is loving life. Then all of a sudden it's Wait a second...where am I? This tree doesn't look familiar. Neither does this one. Hey, who planted new trees? I don't know any of these. Wait...I don't know these buildings either. Which way is North? Hhhmmm...Houston, we have a problem. Since poor Homer feels he needs to rest his weary wings, he lands on our barn. He decides to stick around until his inner GPS is working again. There must be some sort of virus in him to make it malfunction. Either that or poor Homer is just really really bad at his directions. It's lucky for him that Ashley feels bad for him. In the picture to the left, she is tossing pieces of bread on to the top of the roof. If you look straight above her head and a little to the left you will see a piece that is still airborne. What was Homer thinking? I believe he was thinking "Crazy girl! Crazy girl!" Because each time she'd toss a piece, he'd move farther and farther away from her. Again, being the good mom I am, I stifled the giggles.

How bad would that to be a homing pigeon with a bad sense of direction. Does poor Homer get lost often? Has he been lost for so long he doesn't even remember he is lost? Does this poor bird take off every day and then realize 'crap...lost again'. He has little white bands around each ankle (do birds have ankles?). Too bad he can't read them. He could look down and see 123 Mulberry Lane and go "oh geez, that's right!"

Of course in Homers case he'd probably also say "Now...how do I get there?"