Wherin I Uncover Steve's Past and Future

When we last left Steve the pigeon, he was living in a dog crate on my porch while I tried to figure out what the heck to do with a lost homing pigeon.

It turns out that there are quite a lot of pigeon clubs and registries in America, and if you can read the band number on your bird they can look it up for you and trace the name of the owner. It took me a week or so to come to the conclusion that while my research into pigeon racing made me feel uncomfortable about returning Steve to a home that might inadvertently put him right back into a very dangerous situation, I also didn't feel right just kidnapping someone's bird.

So I laid on the ground and turned my head every which way until I could read Steve's band number, and then emailed it to the helpful folks at the National Pigeon Association.

They told me that they had sold that band to a man named Tom, and gave me his phone number. So I called Tom to let him know I had his bird.

Tom was very surprised and appreciative that I had called him. It turns out that Steve is a very young bird - not even a year old - and one day he hadn't come back to the roost with the rest of the flock. Tom had assumed he had been killed by a hawk or other predator, and made peace with the fact that he would probably never see that bird again.

The kicker, however, was when Tom asked me again to tell him where I was located.

"Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania," I repeated.

"WHERE!?" said Tom, "I'm in Fair Hill, Maryland! How the heck did he get all the way up there?!"

It turns out our little Steve had flown himself all the way from Fair Hill, which is a solid 2.5 hour trip by car. What a champ. What a bad homing pigeon. Tom mused that it was a bit far for him to go to retrieve a $6 bird that would probably get lost again anyway, and said I could give Steve away, or keep him, or do whatever I'd like with him. I told him that was alright, as I'd grown pretty fond of the little guy and he could stay with me forever. Tom was so, so grateful to hear that, and said that if I lived closer he would have given me a pigeon buddy for Steve. I ended that phone call with a new friend and a pet pigeon.

Steve is still living on the porch for now until I can find more suitable accommodations, but hopefully soon I'll be able to share photos of his Pigeon Palace.

Welcome home, Steve.