CAPE CORAL, Fla. — So a pigeon tries to walk into a hair salon and incredibly, that was not the opening line for a joke.
It happened at Eva's Hair and Skin Salon in Cape Coral.
Elizabeth Merriken was in the salon chair when a bird started drawing people outside the front door.
“I'm always finding homeless stray animals so it was typical for me,” said Merriken.
While finding a pigeon outside is probably as typical as you can get, the salon's massage therapist, Tammy Pangburn, said its behavior was not.
“I had just watered the plants outside the door and the water was dripping down and I noticed this bird come up and try to drink the water,” said Pangburn.
Pangburn said they quickly realized this pigeon was someone's pet.
“Beth, the client, grabbed it and held it up,” said Pangburn.
Pangburn said on the pigeon’s foot was a phone number, which led to a phone call Merriken said none of them could have predicted.
“We called him to see if he was missing a bird and he said it had been missing since the hurricane,” said Merriken.
Hurricane Ian — over 15 months ago.
“We called that our little Christmas miracle,” said Pangburn.
A reunion that will make this holiday season feel much brighter for the bird and its owner.
“You could tell the bird really knew his owner. He snuggled up to him when he was holding him,” said Pangburn.
