CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY ME

APARTMENT 316

For all animal lovers, welcome, have a seat, as I share some information on the conspiracy to destroy.

The building located in the downtown neighborhood, surrounded by developing high rises. Some soon occupied as they were finish, others still not finish due to perhaps financial difficulties on the owners part or not enough potential homeowners purchases may have contributed to construction incomplete.

From apartment 316, the view to the lake across to the Island now blocked by buildings erected for the collage students dorms and study rooms. The park and other places which were once the flying creatures habitat among the downtown core now taken over by newly constructed buildings saw their food supply diminish as the years went on with more constructed high rises.

I moved from the second floor to the third and was on suspicious alert of the #birds in the tree (that had to be cut years later due to parts of its rotting branches) and on the balcony with the exception of one, who I thought belonged to someone for the way it staked out the apartment and my activities within. It was different from the others—white in color, having the appearance of a dove; this was its home and only two others were allowed to join it on the porch. Over the months we had become friends. I would feed them ever so often and all attempts to capture it failed. Shown signs that its foot was hurt made it impossible to gain its human concerned care. I understood how pain can cause one to lose trust, and even move one to madness, but with each new day given opportunity to capture and get [it] to an animal vet for care, failed. In conversation with one tenant on the floor above informed me she tried to do the same—capture it, for her grand-daughter. However, one day they were not seen, and the next, and the next. It is said that you do not miss the water until the well goes dry. And in a philosophical way I missed them, we had become friends away from the office. My thought was they had formed a plan to find [the white one’s] owner, the reason for their absence.

A few months later, they were back but not with the one I believed to be a dove, perhaps they had helped in finding [its] home. So, the cycle of feeding began once more. Whether they were fed or not, apartment 316 was their home. Many nights (Angel—the name given her) slept on her own. This is known from my observation of her. She sometimes would settle in within the plant pot or cozy up next to the broom and other items on the balcony. In the morning her mate would join her, and they would fly off in search of food. Wherever they went soon they’ll return to occupy the balcony. For hours they sit together, play with each other and do as I do—observe the surroundings. Once in a while flying off to join their peers to later return. No matter the weather Angel, was on the balcony.

On March 26, 2022, I woke to see her with an egg and a few days after on March 28, 2022, with another. An emergency trip to the States came up and I had to leave, but ask the folks I worked for to look in on her once in a while. The nights were a bit cold, so I put the plant-pot in a cardboard box and covered part of the top, to keep her warm. I came back in May to find her little ones hatched, so I removed them into a larger box and would look them after for her until, one day the superintendent came and removed them due to complaints from the neighbors.

LOOKING INTO ANGEL’S HISTORY

There is a variety of species all known as pigeons.
Despite the history of pigeons, city pigeons today are seen as pests, mainly due to their droppings. Feral pigeons are considered invasive in many parts of the world. Pigeons have served key roles as food, pets, holy animals, post carriers, and more for thousands of years. The earliest record mention of pigeon comes from Mesopotamia some 5,000 years ago. Ancient Egyptians kept vast quantities of them, and would sacrifice tens of thousands at a time for ritual purposes. They were introduced to the Americas about 400 years ago, as they were not native to the New World. Around the 18th century, interest in fancy pigeons began, and breeders greatly expanded the variety of pigeons.

DOMESTIC PIGEONS
The domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) is a pigeon subspecies that was derived from the rock dove (also called the rock pigeon). The rock pigeon is the world’s oldest domesticated bird. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets mention the domestication of pigeons more than 5,000 years ago, as do Egyptian hieroglyphics. Research suggests that domestication of pigeons occurred as early as 10,000
years ago. Pigeons have made contributions of considerable importance to humanity, especially in times of war. In war the homing ability of pigeons has been put to use by making them messengers. So-called war pigeons have carried many vital messages, and some have been decorated for their services. Medals such as the Croix de Guerre, awardee to Cher Ami, and the Dickin Medal awarded to the pigeons G.I.Joe, and Paddy, amongst 32 others, have been awarded to pigeons for their services in saving human lives. Despite the long history of pigeons, little is known about their initial domestication. What is known comes from written accounts, which certainly do not cover the first stages of domestication because domestic and feral pigeons have extensively interbred with wild pigeons, and this frequent breeding further muddies the true origins of pigeons. From a genetic perspective, there are two loose ancestral
clades of pigeons, but there is striking genetic homogeneity due to frequent interbreeding and human directed crossbreeding. The first ancestral clade contains pigeons with exaggerated crops, tails, manes; the second contains tumblers (the most diverse group), homing pigeons owl pigeons, and those with exaggerated wattles.

GROUP OF PIGEONS
Trained domestic pigeons are able to return to the home loft if released at a location that they have never visited before and that may be up to 1,000 km (620 mi) away. This ability to return home from strange location is called “map sense” is their geographic location. The second, “compass sense” is the bearing they need to fly from their new location in order to reach their home. Both senses, however, respond to a number of different cues in different situations. The most popular conception is that they are able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field with tiny magnetic tissues in their head (magnetoception). Another theory is that pigeons have compass sense, which uses the position of the sun, along with an internal clock, to work out direction. However even with disruption or clock changes disruption of these senses the pigeons still manage to get home. The variability in the effects of manipulations indicated that there is more than one cue on which navigation is based and that map sense appears to rely on a comparison of available cues.

A special breed, called homing pigeons, has been developed through selective breeding to carry messages, and members of this variety of pigeon are still being used in the sport of pigeon racing and the white release dove ceremony at weddings and funerals. Pigeons are also kept by enthusiasts for the enjoyment of flying/sporting competitions. Breeds such as tipplers are flown in endurance contests by their owners.

EXPERIMENTS
Have shown pigeons to have the capacity to share attention between different dimensions of a stimulus, but (like humans and other animals) their performance with multiple dimensions is worse than with a single stimulus dimension.
➢ Pigeons can be taught relatively complex actions and response sequences, and can learn to make responses in different sequences.
➢ Pigeons can discriminate between other individual pigeons, and can use the behavior of another individual as a cue to tell them what response to make.
➢ Pigeons readily learn to make discriminative responses to different categories of stimuli, defined either by arbitrary rules (e.g., green triangles) or by human concepts (e.g., pictures of human beings).
➢ Pigeons seem to have difficulty in dealing with problems involving classes of classes. Thus, they do not do very well with the isolation of a relationship among variables, as against a representation of a set of exemplars.
➢ Pigeons can remember large numbers of individual images for a long time, e.g., hundreds of images for periods of several years.
➢ Pigeons have unusual, perhaps unique, abilities to learn routes back to their home from long distances. This homing behavior is different from that of birds that learn migration routes, which usually occurs over a fixed route at fixed times of the year.

LOOKING INTO THE LAW

The City reviewed the Animal Bylaw to improve the coexistence of humans and wildlife and will be exploring the option to restrict most feeding on all private and public properties across Toronto. For more in-depth information http://www.toronto.ca/animalbylaw Currently feeding wildlife is prohibited across City parks.
New rules as to limits to the number of pets permitted to own will go into effect on December 1, 2022. As of April 1, 2023, feeding wildlife will be prohibited across Toronto and on private properties.

WHAT ANGEL HAS TAUGHT ME

Humans and animals alike are created with the need for companionship. Some animals like humans will compete for a mate of choosing, and they will fight to the death or that of being injured that calls or sees a truce. Whether we fight and achieve our desire or loss to walk away, there still exists that need to be loved and to give love. Some of us will never be faithful to one mate, as the need to give and receive of love is to be fulfilled by multiple partners. And then jealousy arises among both males and females.
Can animals feel the pain of losing a loved one or the pain of rejection? They do. For since their return, it seemed to me Angel was really missing the white one, and as much as her companion tried to console her she seemed not to care. So, he came back and forth to be with her, but come late evening he would be gone, to be back the next day.

I observe the pair, unlike humans they do not remain in mental confrontation or battle with the one who has captured “their” man’s or woman’s attention. They fly away in search of another who will appreciate and love them for them. Adapting such an attitude, life can be lived in happiness. The unnecessary wars among us could be avoided if we first knew how to love ourselves. Then we will be able not only to love another, but receive rejection kindly.

Angel and I will continue to share unit 316. However, feeding her on the balcony will no longer be done—as my word, is my bond of honor. Between she and I, she knows when she alerts me that she is hungry when I leave the apartment where she will find her food.

Stay tune for part 2, of Angel’s adapting to a new attitude, and information on how Doug Ford’s building projects will affect the downtown health of the less fittest. With love I leave you all blessings and hope to see you on the next #blog.