Pigeons

I was walking Cooper yesterday when we came across a pigeon with a broken leg and wing. I wonder how that happened; it must be a treacherous life to be a pigeon in the city. Anyway, this was not Cooper's first encounter with a damaged pigeon. With his first encounter, he ran up to the flailing pigeon only to back away from it, screaming, when it started flapping more frantically in Cooper's face.

This time Cooper ran up to it, very excited, tail wagging, and a grin on his face. The pigeon flapped away a few feet, Cooper followed, and the pigeon flapped away again. This time in his pursuit, Cooper accidentally stepped on the pigeon. It gave a loud coo and Cooper took a few steps back with a horrified expression on his face. He held up the paw that stepped on the pigeon as the pigeon lay there, quietly waiting to die. All I could think about was Cooper's frame of mind and I'm sure it went something like this:

Cooper: "Oh my God! A friend! Wanna come over to our house? You can see my toys! Wait, come back, I just wanted to ask you a question...oh, so you wanna play chase? OK! Oh my God! I am so sorry! Are you ok? Oh goodness, I didn't mean to step on you, geez, you're not moving...are you ok? Um...maybe I should leave..."

Pigeon: "Oh God, please have mercy on me. Oh God, please don't...Oh God, just kill me now while I have some dignity left."

Alas, Cooper and I walked off on our merry way while the pigeon, who knows, I'm sure something came along and put it out of its misery or maybe it fell into the street. All I know is, Cooper could never kill anything. He just wants to be friends with pretty much any animal he comes across. He accidentally killed a fly once and I never saw him look so sad.