Winter 2013 Eva, Continued from page 30 room. She immediately went to sleep. Jimmy is an excellent researcher – give him ten minutes and a laptop and he can chart a course to Saturn. Videos abound on the Internet for the feeding and care of all sorts of birds, all of which require an eyedropper and loads of patience. We pureed canned dogfood, ripe bananas and hummingbird juice in a blender and set up a little feeding station on the kitchen table. The first several attempts were a struggle, but by the end of the second day, she lined up for chow like a veteran. We picked up a very nice cage – designed for rabbits, but perfect for our dove – at Hoofin’ It Feed & Tack here in Globe. It sits atop our refrigerator, where Jimmy has created ‘Eva-ville’. It’s an elaborate complex of perches, twigs, stands and feeding areas. When possible, we leave her cage door open, where she sits and surveys the newly installed hanging pot rack. She has yet to test its perchability. Concerned with the attentions of an aging Border Collie and an ancient Yellow Lab and notwithstanding the furtive upward glances thrown by our newest and youngest dog (a totally insane ten-month-old Doberman, as tall as a mare), we monitored all ingress and egress. Eva yawned. The Doberman stretched and took a nap. The Border Collie couldn’t even hear Eva’s birdsong, and the Lab, who walks into walls some nights, seemed not to even see her. Eva is an amiable, affectionate bird- she enjoys sitting on top of our heads or riding our shoulders as we make
coffee and do the dishes. About a month after we found her we decided to do a test flight outside, believing that she might be ready for the Big Sky. Jimmy even filmed the event – she went up, then came right back down to his shoulder. This happened twelve times. She just wasn’t ready to go. But two days after that, as I was watering the short beige stubble of lawn in front of our porch, my hose got tangled and it sprayed in her direction. She panicked and was gone. It came as a surprise to realize how attached we’d become to this little bird. The kitchen was too quiet; her empty cage was desolate, devoid of light and music. Even the dogs were somber. I kept telling myself that this was really all about nature taking its course – it was time for Eva to follow her instincts. Still, there was an emptiness in the air and our eyes felt unfocused – rather like a hangover feeling; we’d had an exhilarating time, and now it was past. In captivity or in the absence of predators, doves can live from ten to twenty-seven years. They have an affinity for humans who care for them, and when they leave those humans, they oftentimes return and start their own family close by. They are one of the ten most abundant birds in the U.S., despite the fact that millions of them are hunted and killed each year. This is why, once caged, they shouldn’t be released. They are known as the ‘doves of the Bible’, probably originating in northeast Africa or Arabia, and are the most commonly kept bird in the world. Ringnecked doves, especially pure white ones, are very popular with magicians. Eva is a Ring-necked dove (Streptopelia capicola), and her softly issued ‘cooka-loo’ confirms it. She is a lovely grey fawn color, with a charcoal ring at the back of her graceful neck, a white throat and perfectly articulated wings. She is eleven and a half inches long. The day after she disappeared, I was ecstatic to see her again as I left for work; she reclaimed her spot on my head for a moment, but then took off. Jimmy returned
home for lunch to find her perched on the porch, too warm and too hungry but very excited to see him. Eva’s little feather-dance confirmed it. He phoned with the news and said she was safely back in the house— I could hear cooing in the background. She hasn’t been outdoors since. Our house is certainly a menagerie, with all sorts of barking, snarling, flapping and snoring. We continue to remind each other that Eva is loose in the kitchen or that the Lab
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has wandered— backwards— into the basement. While we may be the protectors in a sense, it is the animals— each with a distinct personality— who keep us sane while driving us crazy, who shower unconditional love while wetting the floor, and who let loose with a cacophony of howling when the mailman delivers. Above all, it is Eva (who really is above it all) who shows us that ugliness grows to beauty and a song can indeed make the day sweeter. Cooka-loo!