To the Palomacy Community,

In early 2017, my child turned her laser focus to birds. We spent long hours at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, drawing and playing with the ravens. One day I said to her, “Ravens are smart and ravens are funny, but ravens are wild and will always be wild. If you want to make friends with a bird, you should hang out with pigeons!” As a former New Yorker, I knew this to be so.

The child turned out to have a knack for earning the trust of feral pigeons; she was adept at catching them and would check them for stringfoot or other injuries. She continuously sought connection with these bright, friendly birds. I found the Palomacy Facebook group, and we would scroll through the pictures of adoptable pigeons, saying “maybe” and “one day” and “if you keep your room clean”.

Perhaps I underestimated the power of her longing, because just before her ninth birthday, a white pigeon crashed down in our yard, with the names of a bride and groom written on her wings with Sharpie, and a heart drawn on her breast. I wrote to the group “is this a wild pigeon?” And Elizabeth Young answered “That is a King pigeon someone has drawn on.” I asked if Palomacy would take her off our hands, but Elizabeth wisely held the line. Pearl was young, hungry, and scared, and Pearl changed our lives.

Elizabeth drove out to our home and gave us a crash course on how to welcome a pigeon into our lives. She shared her own origin story, of working in the shelter and seeing big, gentle King pigeons languishing because they had no one to advocate for them. So she stepped up, and has worked tirelessly ever since. Our home visit was a tiny snippet of her generosity and devotion to the birds and to the people who take them in.

I have grown to care deeply for these birds, and Palomacy people have become my people. I have seen the cooperation and shared heavy lifting of this extraordinary community of volunteers and supporters, moving financial and logistical mountains to save a discarded, hawk-struck pigeon, sweating in the sun to assemble an aviary, helping each bird on the journey from rescue to forever home, and showing up at outreach events with smiles to help shift the public’s indifference to these sweet, brave birds.

The need is never ending, and I’ve watched in wonder and learned so much from Elizabeth and Jill as they lead and serve this community, connecting people, triaging intakes, coordinating rescues, coaching new foster homes, finding sources of funding, getting all sorts of different people to “yes”.

When Elizabeth called me to tell me she was retiring, and asked if I would step in as co-director of the organization, “yes” was the only possible answer. I am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve the community I love, and, with your continuing help, to grow this extraordinary force for good.

Thank you, Palomacy!

In gratitude,
Cynthia