Valentino

It was February fourteenth and the nesting season

when they decided to clean the palm trees.

Two baby doves fell with the branches,

one already dead, one still living.

So Valentino survived

though naked and blind,

to be taken home and fed 

every twenty minutes of the day.

Strength was needed to open his beak

and a syringe to squirt in milk and mashed meat

doves not understanding 

that mouths need to be opened

before bellies can be filled.

So Valentino thrived

even growing spiky rudimentary feathers.

Thinking of his adolescence

we were concerned about the wild cats

who patrolled the gardens,

so we took him to the Parque Tropical

where baby eagles are reared.

There, we explained the predicament to Juan

who seemed to have heard such stories many times

and was clearly uninterested in a certainly dying dove.

And then

at the sound of voices

Valentino stood up in his box,

looking round with his still blind eyes

his huge belly now on show.

“Oooo gordo!!” said Juan.

“Si, come mucho,” I said.

“Oooo come mucho,” said Juan

to his colleagues now gathering round.

Juan picked him up

and right on cue

Valentino poohed.

“Oooo,” they all said

lost in admiration.

I fed him then

and he collapsed

in exhaustion as usual

which made them all laugh!

And so it was that he was taken to the Baby Station.

It was February fourteen

one year later. 

Two doves appeared in the baby palm

in our garden and stayed for a week.

We liked to think it was Valentino

coming back to introduce his partner!

It was February fourteen

one year later

when two doves again appeared

in the baby palm in our garden.

It was February fourteen

one year later…….

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