I am one of those people who believes when you take an animal into your home, it is a lifetime commitment for as long as the animal survives. A few years back, we had a stray (but tame) dove make its way into our yard. A couple of months later, someone else gave us a white dove. Voila. Pair of doves as pets.
Well, long story short, one of the doves escaped, and now lives happily in our backyard and around the neighborhood (that's him in the photo above). We put food and water out for him and he's not only survived, but thrived, in this limited "wild" experience. However, in about six months --- maybe less -- we will no longer live on this property, and so the task has become to re-capture the dove and put him back into our aviary, so he can move with us and the other birds.
So I've set a trap. A small cage with his lady love inside, and one below, open, with a bowl of food. I am hoping he will enter the bottom cage, I can slam the door shut, and then place both doves, together, back into the big aviary we have at the other end of the yard.
I hate to re-cage him, as he's enjoying his freedom so much. But there's every possibility that, once we move, there will no longer be a food source here, and I don't want to see him starve. Even though he's been "wild" for about three years now, he still feels like my responsibility. And so Operation Re-Capture begins.
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