A fancy pigeon abandoned at a Burnaby park a year ago never has to leave his new owner's side thanks to some special Ukrainian pigeon pants.
"Pidgey," a tan coloured English trumpeter pigeon with elaborate feathered tufts on his feet and head, was spotted abandoned by a woman walking a dog near some Central Park picnic tables last May.
Thanks to the involvement of multiple people communicating on Reddit, the bird was eventually adopted by Chrissy Chin, who owns a farm in Aldergrove with her husband.
Chin took to Reddit again recently to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Pidgey's rescue.
"Just wanted to update and let everyone know he now lives in our house and wears a diaper because he's so attached to me," Chin wrote in a post Monday.
She said she had tried to get Pidgey to live in the barn with other pigeons she has rescued but to no avail.
"He was so certain he was meant to be in our house," Chin wrote. "He would escape any chance he could and try to find me by circling our house. Any cage and he would smash his head into the sides."
Chin eventually relented and allowed the bird to live in the house, but pigeon poop became a big problem, and finding a solution became imperative for the good of her marriage, Chin told the NOW in a phone interview Wednesday.
"It was either that or I was going to get divorced," she said with a laugh.
She first tried using a medical mask as a diaper but said Pidg kept tripping over it.
In desperation, she eventually just Googled "pigeon diaper."
That's how she got in touch with a woman in Ukraine who handcrafts the much needed pigeon product and sells them on Etsy.
"I think in Ukraine it's more common to keep, like, crows and pigeons as house pets," Chin said.
The woman asked for measurements and sent off a couple pairs of pants in different sizes.
The habiliment works like a charm.
"You just line it like you would a normal diaper, and then you change it," Chin explained. "We'll give him time during certain parts of the day to bathe with it off."
The solution has only strengthened Pidgey's bond with his beloved owner.
Chin said she hadn't planned to keep the bird but to rehabilitate and re-home him as she has other pigeons that end up lost at her place regularly.
But Pidgey was different from the start.
"He's really really affectionate," Chin said. "Right now he's sitting next to me on my desk and he's leaning down with his head flat because he wants me to pet him. He will come up and fly on me and nuzzle under my chin. He sort of preens all around my face. Sometimes I'll wake up and he'll be in the bed."
Chin's husband, however, does not share in the bird's affections.
"He's kind of mean to my husband,” she said. "He'll tolerate him, but he will peck him aggressively at any opportunity."
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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