A few weeks ago, we received a call from someone whose cat had caught a Mourning Dove, rendering it unable to fly. Even without an obvious injury, any animal that has been caught by a cat needs to be admitted for antibiotics, as cats have a bacteria in their saliva that can get into the bloodstream of their prey.

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When the bird arrived, I immediately noticed a tremendous amount of swelling in this little fledgling's left wing. After administering a dose of pain medication, I was even more concerned to see that this little guy had also suffered a crop tear. (The crop is the part of a bird where they store food, prior to digestion). However, it seemed that this injury was on its way to healing, which made me curious as to when this happened. I spoke further with the donor, and it turned out the cat had caught the bird about 4 days before. Since the crop was almost healed, and learning that the injury was almost a week old, I cleaned the area up and set the bird up for cage rest, but was still very guarded for this little patient.

Over the course of the next week, he grew stronger and feistier. Mourning doves are amazing birds; I have seen them overcome some very horrific injuries (hawk attacks, cat attacks, being hit by cars). For such a small bird, they certainly can overcome, so each day I grew more hopeful for this little guy.

On Monday, we came in to a bird that refused to be caged any longer. After giving him a few days in an outside aviary to strengthen his muscles, I am thrilled to say that he was released yesterday:

I wish I could have gotten a photo of him flying away, as he did so beautifully, but he was one wild bird that flew 60 feet into the air to the highest point, where no one or nothing could get him. The above photo is one I took inside the aviary, before he was released.

I couldn't have asked for a better moment.