The adventures of Willy

So we had our first encounter with the Arizona wildlife this week. While starring out the window, which we do often in Phoenix because its too hot to actually go outside, my brother (Taco) noticed a pigeon on the edge of the waterfall. Now Taco hates the pigeons on his waterfall, they poop on it. Brent has even gone to the extent of purchase not 1, but 2 owl statues to tackle his pigeon problem with no success. So Brent starts "Look at this pigeon, not only is he on the waterfall, he's going swimming" and as the rest of the family (Christina, Kim, Gavin, and myself) look out the window sure enough, pigeon has slipped, jumped, or slid into the pool. He's all flapping around, Brent starts again, "Oh my gosh, pigeons are so stupid". And he's correct, this pigeon has got himself into the pool, but now can not get himself out. He's trying to climb up the side, which clearly, he won't make, so pigeon accepts his fate and regrets his fatal choice of jumping in for a swim. Taco, feels for the pigeon and decides to try to save it. He gets the filter cleaning net for his pool, pushes the pigeon up onto the waterfall. The pigeon doesn't move. Taco goes to pick him up, again, the pigeon doesn't move. Brent pulls him out of the water, puts him on the concrete, now the pigeon runs for cover in a nearby bush. Brent has this look on his face of sympathy, but in his eyes you can see he's thinking, "what a stupid bird, that jumps into my pool, now I have to save you, what a stupid stupid bird". So Christina runs out to help Taco. They put the pigeon in one of the dog's carry cases kennel things and give him some bread. Taco comes inside, dips his hands in rubbing alcohol and gives himself a 5 minute scrub of the arms/wrist/hands. He turns around and confidently says, "We are going to name him Willy, because we are going to free him!"
So now we have this stupid pigeon Willy that we're trying to nurse back to health so he can fly away. We decided to leave him in the kennel for the night, let his feathers dry, and set him free the following day. Later that night, approximately 4am, we hear coyotes. Howl, Howl, Howling for like 15 minutes straight. Crash is sitting at full attention on the edge of our bed. Kim wakes up, wakes me up and says, "Oh, the coyotes got Willy". Ok, the coyotes are definetly not in our backyard, Crash wouldn't be just sitting at the edge of our bed if there was a coyote in the backyard, and I'm sure the howling would be 10x louder. So I'm confident Willy's fine. Taco and Christina being on the front end of the house did not hear the coyotes.
Morning comes, Taco goes and checks on Willy. He's shit EVERYWHERE! If Taco didn't like bird poop on his waterfall, oh he was so excited to see bird poop all over his dog's kennel. I'm talking, major bird poop, this bird got poop outside of the kennel! He's locked in there, and still managed to get poop outside of the kennel, he crapped all over the place! So, then Brent unlatches the dog kennel and sets Willy in a safe place in the backyard. Willy doesn't fly away, and while Willy is standing there, Brent and Willy have a moment. Brent realizes, "i saved this bird's life, I will always have a spot in the good ol' heart for Willy". Willy still doesn't fly or go anywhere. Brent's gotta go to work, so him and Christina leave. Liz and Kim wake up sometimes later and go on about their day, totally forgettting about Willy. Brent calls about 2pm asking about his new BFF Willy. So Liz goes out to check on him and what do you know? Willy's gone.
Every night now, around sunset you can find Taco starring out the window at the waterfall. Although he never says it, he doesn't say a word actually, you can tell he's waiting and hoping for Willy's return.
Check back next week, maybe we'll have a pet scorpion by then.