Lost pigeon drops in

There's a similarity between a pigeon who came to visit John and Michele Sanders' home at Pine Meadow Village and the famous 1942 movie, "The Man who Came to Dinner," with Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and Monty Wooley. In the movie, acerbic critic Monty Wooley, AKA Sheridan Whiteside, slips on the front steps of a provincial Ohio businessman's home and breaks his hip, then he and his entourage take over the house and won't leave.

In the Sanders' situation, on August 5, a lone pigeon wearing a bright green band on one leg and a dark green one on the other dropped in to their home on W. St. Helens Avenue, and won't leave - no matter what.

John Sanders was not pleased when he discovered the pigeon perched on the beam of his upper porch - not so much because of the pigeon, but because the grand mess it left on the deck of the porch. John spent the better part of the day scrubbing-and-rinsing-scrubbing-and-rinsing, cleaning up behind his feathered guest.

Of course, said feathered guest kept on replacing the material John was trying to be rid of.

"This thing has to go! I will not feed or water it!" He exclaimed to Michele, and the project to be rid of it got underway with swift blows of a broom to the side of the house and beams.

Right off the bat that worked; the pigeon left in a huff and the Sanders thought that was that.

Wrong. Late that afternoon, guess who showed up and settled in for the night?

Next morning, same messy situation, only this time (after the cleanup) John decided to use a garden hose and wash that thing right out of his hair. The pigeon flew off again in a huff, this time soaking wet. Problem solved. Wrong. Pigeon came back that evening. Same perch spot, same grand mess the next morning.

In desperation, he made a phone call to a neighbor who suggested he call Jim Anderson.

John went to the phone book and found my number and called Mr. Anderson. Luckily, Jim wasn't home - or perhaps somehow knew this was another call for the other Jim Anderson, and didn't want to deal with a sick bird or whatever.

Disappointed and thinking the pigeon would just go away and find someone who would love giving it food and water, John and Michele went to California for eight days.

When they returned the pigeon was still where they left it, but the grand mess was now a grander mess. Enraged by the effrontery of this feathered pest, John went into full mad mode and tried all sorts of noise and ballistics. Success! The bird vanished - for five days.

On the sixth day it reappeared in the backyard on the ground looking pretty drab. "Oh, my gosh," John thought, "I must have hurt the poor thing."

Michele put on gloves and went out in her yard to pick it up, but of course the pigeon would have no part of that. However, she did get close enough to read the numbers of the bright green band: AU 2013, and under that, Texas-4813. Now John had something to hang his hat on, and went to his computer and Googled: "Lost pigeon with green band number AU 2013 -Texas-4813."

After several changes to his search, he hit paydirt: http://www.pigeon.org. In time, http://www.pigeon took John to a pigeon fancier in Oklahoma who said he no longer had that pigeon; he sold it to a guy in Texas, and he gave John the telephone number. The Texas guy said he no longer had the pigeon, he sent it to Daniel in Portland, and gave John the number. Daniel said he no longer had the pigeon, which the Sanderses already knew.

Somewhat like Monty Wooley, who couldn't leave because of a broken hip, the pigeon is still living with John and Michele, but not from an injury, it's just plain lost.

However, all will work well soon. Wildlife rehabber Tracy Leonhardy will be back in town; she'll capture the lost homing pigeon and Daniel will come over from The Swamp and take it back to his loft and repair the bird's GPS so it will never come back to John and Michele's home again.