The ten homeschool moms on my deck had all claimed a pizza crust and topped it with pesto and goat cheese, or olives and veggies, or tomato sauce and motz… I was scooping ember sout of the oven to get ready to bake. I had asked them earlier to keep an eye out for a black and white bird, explaining the saga of the pigeon and my disappointed boy.

It was still bright but the sun had just angled off to give us some shade when my friend Valerie shouted, “There he is!” She had seen a flash of black and white going down into the neighbor’s yard.

Sure enough, the next thing we knew, Sky Cheif was perched in the mulberry tree above the pigeon coop — but so was Molly’s cat, Peekaboo! She was in stalking mode, climing toward the bird. We waved our arms and hollered, but it looked pretty grim until bird took wing.

After a while he found his way under the coop, then climbed against the wire front rtying to get in. When he entered the cage on top, Molly shut the door and trapped him in. We waited around a bit to see whether he would figure out my ingenious pigeon-trap hole, until finally I just reached in and caught him and stuffed him in with the others.

When Connor got home from the library, he was a happy guy. It’s so cool to think this bird just spent the day off who-knows-where, having adventures, and then came home to bed. I wish we could mount a little camera on him.

Anyway, it’s late, and I’m off to bed. Happily ever after.