Edwin and Myrtle

by Pati De Fazio
(Vista California, USA)

Two years ago a pair of doves made a nest in the hanging plant just outside my front door. They had two eggs, they were hatched, and flown the coop.

They had a second set of eggs and these hatched as well. The father stayed with them during the day and the mom at night, that was until the night the mom didn't show up.

Me being the worry wart that I am, crocheted a small square patch and placed it over the hatchlings so they wouldn't get cold in the night.

The next morning I came out and looked and there was the hatchlings the crocheted square and the father.

He came back for three days, after that and on the third day, when I was sitting outside, he came up and stopped right in front of me and looked at me with his one eye, (they don't look straight at you) and told me this would be the last time he would come, and it was up to me to watch over his babies.

He spent the rest of the day with them and never came back. The next day I got on the internet and answered all of my questions about how to take care of baby doves.

I got a shoe box filled it with shredded paper and put the hatchlings in it.

Went to the local feed store and purchased some squab feed and fed the hatchlings every 4 hours daily for about a week.

I then increased their water and thickened their food until they would no longer take it. I had dove feed in one dish and water in another.

This continued for another week or until they started spreading their wings to fly.

You must understand my babies didn't look like the other babies, mine had squab feed that had dried like concrete stuck to their heads. (Trust me, hand feeding tiny hatchlings is not an easy job)

I was afraid they wouldn't be accepted by all the other doves and not be allowed to play in any dove games.

But that didn't matter because Edwin & Myrtle, did I tell you their names yet? Well Edwin & Myrtle had a four bedroom house with a dog for their nest.

To make a long story short, here it is 2 years later and Edwin is still coming to see me, he has had 3 sets of babies all born in the same spot he was born in.

He comes in my house and will get as close to me as he can without touching me, he won't let me touch him but he can touch me anytime he wants.

He absolutely loves my dog, a 130 lb white German Shepard, He often snuggles up with him. Myrtle comes around but she is completely wild and has forgotten me or what I did for her.

Edwin comes into my house and even spends the night if he chooses to, he has a perch in my bedroom and he just flies in there and beds down for the night.

I have to be in there he doesn't like being alone. He has even gone so far as to scold me for staying up to late.

He really is a character you have to see it to believe it.

Birds and Blooms	Pioneer Woman	People Magazine	First For Women