J is for ... "Jo Jo"

I am not sure if I have told you all about our amazing dove Jo Jo.

Jo Jo is a Barbary dove who walked up to us one day when we were working in the garden. She didn't fly off as we got closer and we ended up picking her up. We think maybe she had a sore wing or was hungry as she was quite limp in our hands and didn't even try to escape.

We found a big old cage and popped her in there with the intention of bringing her back to health and setting her free. In the meantime the young 'uns decided that the bird simply MUST have a name of course. Jo was decided on as we couldn't determine it's sex, it then somehow progressed to Jo Jo.

Jo Jo lived with us for quite a while in the house in her big cage and we would all stop to chat with her and became fond of her cooing and that magnificent laughing sound that doves make.

Late last year I made the decision that unless we got an aviary then she had to move on as our cage didn't give her the room to spread her wings and fly. I even spoke to a rescue centre and they said to simply let her go in the wild but we were quite worried as she had become pretty domesticated.

In late spring I decided to release her as threatened. Of course we were all worried about her well-being, especially the Papa but a couple of days later he was delighted to see her fly around the corner and land on the ladder that was beside him whilst he was sitting out on the deck.

From then on she never left the property. She had shifted in with our chickens and then developed a bit if an identity problem. She would hop down off the gate or down from one of the trees and join the chooks at their feed each day. At one stage, much to our amusement, she even laid an egg and sat on it for a while. We ended up making her a dove house down there but she never used it, much preferring to roost with the chickens!

We would pop a wee container out when she popped around to see us every day.

If we left any of doors open in she would come inside and hop around til we noticed her and gently shooed her out again. Here she is on the couch and was watchcing TV!

And here she popped in to visit me in the kitchen whilst I was preparing a meal.

Earlier this year she thought she might even start helping the Papa with the BBQ.


Sadly we haven't seen Jo Jo in over a week or so and are hoping she is OK. We think she is just the most amazing bird and had even been discussing getting a mate for her. Fingers crossed she will return.