Mr Arnie

Mr.Arnold, Lab Cat 

On the odd occasions, during my journey home I have previously chanced upon a bit of avian road kill lying in state. While the bird’s fate is unfortunate I find it important to ensure it did not die in vain. I have often toyed with the idea of picking it up and taking it home, but always bottled it at the last minute as it is a bit gross.


Following a protracted Rat incident involving Mr. Arnie the other Sunday my faithful Lab Cat returned home after one of his evening expeditions with a poignant piece of anatomy hanging out of his gob. By retrieving the wing of a pigeon he had inadvertently answered my prayers. I quickly rescued the remaining carcass from his jaws, thanked him profusely (I must point out it wasn't Arnie who made the kill, the carcass was a good couple of days into decomposition), donned my latex gloves (very important) and set about the bird biopsy.

At this point my research had left me a little short of understanding. I had ample photo's and video's but they can only tell you so much; you can observe these creatures in the wild but they move so quick and travel so much distance you have to be David Attenborough with a high speed camera to capture any meaningful footage - that I am not!

So I still had a few blanks to fill and after 15mins playing with the wings mechanisms, I had learnt far more about the folding process than all my previous endeavours.

For ease of reference, I think it would be best to break my findings down into separate posts. I will try and relate my images to illustrate the incorrect assumptions I have previousley made.