AT THE BEGINNING of September, Claire Kiely went for a bagel after work with her friend. On her way home, she spotted a pigeon backed into a corner on Abbey Street.

At first she joked “Nobody puts baby in the corner” and bent down to take a Snapchat, but then she noticed his wing was drooping and he was unable to fly.

Claire told DailyEdge.ie:

I felt so sorry for him, I couldn’t just leave him there. He wouldn’t survive. So I went back to work, grabbed a cardboard box, and went back out to pick him up and popped him in the box.

She went to a pet shop and got him some food to tide him over until she could bring him to see a vet the next morning.

Claire expected her mam to go mad when she brought home a pigeon. Whose mam wouldn’t?

However, Claire’s mam was actually quite sound about it and told her “Bring him into your dad, he’ll know what to do.” Claire’s dad kept pigeons when he was young so they were a little bit more prepared for this situation than the average household.

When she eventually got Pidge some medical help the next day, the vet was not expecting Claire to be so attached to the bird.

They thought I was leaving him in and walking away. She asked if I wanted the cage back that I brought him in. I was like… ‘I want the pigeon back’.

At that moment Pidge officially became her pet – she had no choice but to register him as a pet to get him seen to. The vet wasn’t sure what to do, but referred Claire and Pidge to an avian vet.

At the new vet, Pidge and Claire were almost separated.

They tried to take him and said if we can’t do anything, we’d be looking at euthanasia. There was no way I was going to let that happen. I had already Googled and watched every pigeon video on YouTube, joined a forum and Facebook pages and had done as much research as possible. I knew he could survive and still live a happy life.

She learned how to bandage up Pidge’s broken wing online and read that she needed to leave it like this for 2-4 weeks. It took loads of practice because sometimes he’d try and peck off the bandage at nighttime.

She finally made a visit to an avian vet in Bray named Bairbre O’Malley who thought Pidge was a “handsome little thing.” Bairebre x-rayed Pidge and found three fractures in his wing.

Here’s the picture of a pigeon’s x-ray that you never knew you needed to see.

Since Claire visited Bairbre O’Malley, she’s been helping Pidge to do physio to stretch out his wing three times a week and feeding him medication.

The broken bones were old and had fused, so there’s very little chance that poor Pidge will fly again, but broken bones aside, he’s one extremely lucky pigeon.

Claire went further out of her way for this pigeon than a lot of people ever would for other human beings. She told DailyEdge.ie that sharing her experience with Pidge has had a pretty positive impact.

I’ve changed so many peoples opinions on pigeons since I’ve gotten him. I’ve always loved pigeons and hate how people call them ‘rats with wings’. They’re so intelligent, beautiful and funny.

There’s no denying that Pidge is actually pretty cute.  You can follow Pidge on Instagram here and keep up with his recovery and his very glamorous life.

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