As I wrote this story I was reminded of such a happy time some years back when my husband and I nurtured a baby collared dove. We called him ‘Sydney’. My husband found him fallen from his nest and over the next few weeks we learned how to care for Sydney. I taught him to feed, my husband built him a well-insulated home (!) and we watched him grow in confidence and size. Sadly the day had to come when Sydney would fly the nest, but whenever we see a collared dove we think of him and smile.

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