I have discovered a whole new world of reliable truth about those birds we all see around town. Yes, more about pigeons, but now so much more than what I learned lately about these heroes of the skies (and in one case thought I learned, but wrong I was so now have to correct my all too public blunder). Elizabeth Young, founder of Palomacy the San Francisco pigeon rescue and adoption organization she not only founded but oversees on a daily basis. So many questions. Pigeons and doves one and the same? Well, the same family, as it turns out but so are grapefruit and kumkwats and you would never mistake one for the other.
How do they know how to get home from wherever they are? Why do they always want to get home? How can they take messages? Why do they make such good, loving and loyal pets? Do we help them when we feed them? Why do they nest on your window sills and rooftops when there are so many perfectly good trees available? Those white doves released in a romantic outburst at weddings, who are they really? How many varieties of pigeons are there (one that shocked me)?
Here is a question I never even thought to ask. Devoted family members as they are, males sometimes taking over hatching duties and both mother and father pigeons care for the young, are there ever same gender couples among pigeons? For the joy and education of it, listen to Elizabeth Young talk about her journey and her pigeons well, all our pigeons. This Love Letters Live episode is like attending the best of classes on pigeons in their enormous variety. Some of the realities about these beautiful birds will make you run for the box of Kleenex. Others may have you laughing. For my part, I will never, after this episode, see pigeons as anything less than the glorious creatures they are.
All these questions and more I never thought to ask are answered by Elizabeth and the three pigeons she brought to the taping of her Love Letters Live episode. Yes, and a lesson in themselves, the three pigeons, one of whom, cooed her way sweetly throughout.