Thursday, July 19, 2012

El Perro y La Paloma

My dad hates pigeons.
Can't blame him, pigeons wreak havoc on the roof. Fixing the roof is expensive... I'd rather spend that money traveling. Wasting money like that on a roof only pisses off the family.

Dad thoroughly enjoys going outside, BBgun in hand, and killing any and all pigeon that chills near our house.
Sometimes, Dad manages to kill the bird, others the bird manages to escape... often with a mortal wound. Blood from the fleeing, injured bird will usually splatter our concrete, or cars.
The unluckier birds land somewhere in the backyard-- within Tyson's grasp.

Tyson has learned to hate pigeons.
Initially, when he started encountering the injured pigeons, he'd stare at them confused.
This was followed by a short period where he tried eating them.
He finally adopted a more sadistic practice: he played with them.
Tyson would start by gently dragging out the pigeon from whatever hiding spot it had found.
He then would drag the pigeon to the only open, grassy part of the backyard. He'd stare at the terrified pigeon, and as the pigeon approached the edge of the grassy area, he'd drag the bird back near him-- tearing out some of the feathers each time he'd do this.
Once the pigeon quit trying to flee... and it was nearly bald, blood dripping out of the pores... Tyson would proceed to force it to move.
As the pigeon lay still, but alive, tyson would throw it back and forth between his paws, occasionally nudging it with his nose... forcing the bird to move its broken bones somehow.
Tyson would finally walk away once the pigeon's reflexes were close to non-exisitant. He'd let the bird agonize for the last few minutes of its life... and never acknowledged it again.

I don't know what possessed him to do this, but he did it. I don't know why he chose to torture pigeons instead of giving it a swift death... but he did it. I don't know what made him stop this behavior, but I'm glad it did.

I don't know which human owners he was emulating with this behavior... but I bet it was a guy.

2 comments:

Kelley said...

Mine catches and eats them :X

Mooney said...

My dad does the same thing mi Tio does. Benji likes to chase them and then grab them in his mouth and run around with it. Weird dog...