Wayward racing pigeon gets help from good Samaritans

On the morning of Oct. 1, Linda Uhiren of Slovak noticed her dog, Lucky, was barking more than normal and a dove was standing by Lucky's pen.

The bird turned and walked away and all returned to to normal.

Later that afternoon she and her husband, Johnnie, noticed the bird returned. It walked calmly in front of their garage and around the house to a neighboring bean field. Johnnie Uhiren quickly followed the bird, which was wearing bands on its legs, and returned with it in his arms.

The bird had two bands, one green and one white.

"She was beautiful with a gray body enhanced with a magenta iridescent breast," Linda Uhiren said.

The bird had an iridescent green on its throat that widened towards its back, and across the back it had two long black bands. Its underfeathers were white.

"Just her appearance told us she was a special bird," Linda Uhiren said.

They contacted the Prairie County Sheriff's Department, which told them to contact the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, who in turn told them it does not deal with found birds.

However, using information provided by the leg bands, Arkansas Game and Fish was able to locate the Racing Pigeon Club, where the owner of the bird was a member. An e-mail was sent to both the club and the owner that morning, and by noon the club replied.

"Racing birds usually become tired and stop to rest. If the bird seems well, it would be alright to release her, since they usually return home," the club told the Uhirens.

They decided to release the bird, but first took some pictures. As they released the bird, it flew and landed in a bean field.

After looking for the bird for a short time, Linda Uhrien returned to her home to find an e-mail from the owner.

"Her name is Sahara and she comes from a very special line of birds. She is only 6 months old and I am very surprised she flew that far," said her owner, who lives in Dallas.

Sahara was on a 50-mile training toss when she became lost. She had been missing for seven days.

"I believe if she is released, she will not make it home," the owner wrote.

After supper, the couple went out to try and locate Sahara.

"As we walked out of the garage, we saw her coming up the driveway towards us," Linda Uhrien said. "We could not believe our eyes. Johnnie began calling her name and circled around behind her. She came right into the garage and we quickly put down the doors. We had already realized she did not like being enclosed in the shop, so we moved the cage to a table on our covered porch. She had a good view of the yard and we could see her from the kitchen."

They found out from the owner to give Sahara dove feed and water.

"After installing plastic cups on her cage, I watched her quickly begin to eat. When she was not eating, she usually stood in front of her food as if to guard it," she said. "As the days passed she was timid but visibly became stronger and soon began to raise her wings and stretch her legs back under them as if doing exercises."

The couple had no experience with birds, but Johnnie Uhrien remembered his family raising baby chicks when he was a child and drew on that experience. As time went by, Sahara began to grow stronger.

"When the cage door was opened to change the droppings paper or to feed her, she would rush to the opening to try and get free," Linda Uhrien said.

The couple finally received the shipping box from her owner and took Sahara to the post office on Oct. 14. The owner signed for Sahara before noon the following day.

"She became the talk of the community," she said. "It was a very interesting experience we would not have missed for anything. She was very responsive to our care and seemed to realize we were helping her."

Linda Uhrien was told by the bird's owner that Sahara's mother and father had won 300- and 500-mile races.

"Our advice is don't take pot shots at wild birds for any reason, since you just might be killing a valuable bird like this one that is doing a task it is bred and trained for. God's creatures are precious and we should do all we can to help them when they are in danger," she said.

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