If you're one of the two or three regular readers, you know that I work with doves in both our Supreme Court Jesters family ministry and our LOL middle school ministry.  You also might recall that one of my doves, Blizzard, died recently.  Because we now do two dove productions in most of our shows, I wanted to replace this loss quickly, but pet doves are hard to come by.  After a search for doves on line, I found there were some available from an animal adoption in Methuen, Massachusetts.  So, on December 30th, we took a road trip to pursue the adoption further.

Gas and toll costs aside, we were able to get two one-year-old males for $15.  The adoption center was very busy.  Apparently, there are lots  of 'returns' after Christmas.  That information made me a little sad.  On the up side, though, there were also lots of families coming in to volunteer, including walking dogs, brushing pets and cleaning cages.  Also, it seemed to be a popular field trip for area group homes of special needs adults.  A very cool win-win kind of arrangement.

Anyway, we have the doves, and are beginning to work on training them.  I'm glad we have a few weeks before our next show, because these two are young and energetic.  One of them, who we named Silas, is already starting to adjust to handling and our expectations in performances.  The other, who we named Paul, should probably still be called Saul, because he clearly hasn't met Jesus yet.  He's is a real handful.  Actually, he's NOT a handful, because every time we try to hold him, he's off and flying.  I had a little more success with him this afternoon, but we have a long way to go.  He’s not mean - doves never are – and the three get along very well.  But right now he handles more like a humming bird than a dove.  

Above is a picture of one of our new boys waiting for adoption in Methuen.  He's now in our very roomy cage in our spare room with two friends.