Invasion

Funny thing happened last night.
I came home, and just as I sat down on the couch, the blinds behind me rustled noisily. At first I ducked, thinking they were going to fall over me. Nothing happened after a few seconds, when I looked up to see a bird flapping and hovering above my head. This unexpected invader scared the daylights out of me--I ran down the hall screaming, pounded on Jake's door, and told him that THERE WAS A PIGEON IN OUR APARTMENT! He woke up from his nap, amused at this occurrence, and came out to take pictures. How it got into our place? We had no clue. How we were going to get it out? We were even more clueless. Jake grabbed a broom, I grabbed a swiffer mop, we opened our front door--and so began our attempt to get the bird out. 15 scary, hilarious, and frustrating minutes later, it was still inside, flying from the living room to the kitchen, back and forth and everywhere but out the door! To our rescue came two girls on our doorstep: a 6th grader and 9th grader selling candy for their soccer team. They've apparently had experience with getting birds out of their own home, and were more than willing to help. The older girl, JoJo, grabbed the broom from Jake and started chasing--and whacking--the poor tired-out pigeon, causing feathers to fly everywhere. We ended up popping the screen off the kitchen window, and the bird finally exited out of it during the last chase. According to the girls, having a bird in your home is good luck, and may be a sign that money will be coming in soon, which is a fun idea to entertain. If nothing else, it provided us with an eventful evening full of laughs.