This post is not about cancer 🙂

Not long after I moved into mom’s condo, I started seeing this crow that was hopping funny and his wingtip was dragging on the ground. The more I watched him,the more I saw how messed up his wing and leg were. It looked like he’d been hit by a car at some point. When he flew, the one leg would hang down. The injuries seemed to be old, he was used to them and got around ok.

Me being an animal lover, I felt sorry for him so I tossed him some cat food. Next day he was on my fence. I fed him again. He’d show up every couple of days. After a while he was showing up every day. I decided to name him Draco. (means serpent or dragon in Latin). He could see me sitting on the couch and if I ignored him, he’d caw to make sure I knew he was there. After a while he was showing up more than once a day. He learned my routine and will patiently, quietly wait for me in the morning. I’m not always up as early as him. When I do wake up, I can see him watching me through the sliding glass doors in my bedroom and he’ll “follow” me to the living room when I get up.

A couple of months ago his mate started showing up with him. She‘s classy and quiet and a real lady. She’s smaller than Draco. She is constantly grooming Draco and doesn’t take any guff from him and will stop him from stealing her portion of the food by chirping at him. I named her Stella.

Then there were 3. Their kid started coming with them. Noisy little bugger. He’d caw relentlessly and beg Draco and Stella to feed him. Occasionally they’d get angry with him and knock him off the fence and pin him to the ground. I call him Chucky. It took me a while to figure out how to make sure they all got food so that Chucky would shut up.

Every so often there are 4 others that show up (the band of brothers) but they only seem to show up in the mornings.

These 3 now show up at least 3 times a day. Yup. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can get pretty close to them, about 3 feet before they get nervous and fly to a different area on the fence. I love watching how they interact with each other and have learned so much about them. My neighbour teases me about being a bird whisperer.