Birdie on a....Suicide Mission?

A couple of nights ago, all of the neighbors started screaming my name, “OOOH KRISTAL! OOOH KRISTAL!!” This is a fairly frequent occurrence, as the neighbors usually shout for me over silly little things, “OOOOH KRISTAL!! TURN ON YOUR PORCH LIGHT!” or (7am) “OOOH KRISTAL, THE GARBAGE MAN’S COMING!” or 8am today, "OOOH KRISTAL, CAN WE HANG OUR BLANKETS ON YOUR BALCONY!?" This time, however, there was an unusual urgency in their voices.

I looked out the window and saw that everybody was pointing up and shouting. Not having my Albanian brain on, I didn’t listen to what they were yelling and assumed they were calling me to come out to see a rainbow, as it had just finished raining. Much to my surprise, when I went outside, I saw what all the commotion was about! Silly me, Albanians don’t shout about rainbows! They were shouting about the suicidal pigeon hanging by it’s neck from our roof! Somehow, the pigeon got its neck wrapped in a plastic bag, which was caught on our roof, which left for a large lifeless bird gracing our house! Why they alerted me to this travesty, and not Steve, is beyond me.

I called for Steve, who quickly ran up the stairs with a pair of scissors to free the poor bird. Much to all of our surprise, as Steve reached up to save our little friend, the pigeon managed to escape, only to land into the hands of the neighborhood kids, eager to terrorize the poor stunned bird. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes. Please don’t litter, recycle when possible and remember to cut you plastic coke rings! As Animal Planet would say, “it’s their planet too!”