bird accident

something interesting happened last weekend and i would like to capture it in this blog. it was about an accident. a bird's accident for that matter. here's the story.

i was driving my mum and maid to the market for our breakfast. as i drove near the mrt (mass rapid transit) station, a pigeon fell in front of my car. to be more accurate and without the knowledge of how it happened, the pigeon simply dropped down from the sky (presumably) in front of my car. all i saw was a pigeon that dropped back first as it struggled and flapped it's wings futilely mid-air. it happened so fast i didn't have the time to react to it. for that matter, mum did not even notice it.

next thing i knew, it disappeared in front of my windscreen. at the moment, i wanted to swerve my car to avoid it but as i said i didn't have any reaction time and could only quickly refocus my eyes towards my side view mirror. mentally, images of the different scenarios appeared - how it hit the ground and bounced off the bottom of my car, and rolled about, or worst still, falling in the path of my tyres and dying a quick and gruesome death as it gets crushed flat by my car tyres, its blood splashing all over the road and the underside of my car. i shudder as i thought of it.

i heaved a sigh of relief when it appeared in my side mirror and i saw a pigeon recovering from its fall. it must have had a rude shock as it hit the ground and struggled to its feet. i saw it awkwardly limped its way across the road with one wing stretched out straight. the traffic on road was rather heavy and i could not see if it crossed the road successfully. i seemed to sense many other drivers responding in as shocked a manner as i did. that was the last i saw of it. hopefully, the bird is still alive.

thinking about the whole incident, it clarified a frequent question that many have asked (cheekily) "why did the pigeon cross the road?". to save itself, of cos.

:-)

ps: the whole incident reminded me of another that involved 2 pigeons. that incident happened in tampa city where i was based in a decade ago. sad case cos one died, its guts all spewed out of its body and i had to bury it. but well, these incidents reminded me that accidents do happen amongst our non-human friends. we just need to encounter it to appreciate how fragile life it.