Elderly Couple Worship Their Equally-Old Pet Pigeon
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AN animal loving couple love their their pet pigeon so much that they have not gone on holiday for over 17 years.
Additionally, after adopting the pigeon – named Sushi – when she came into their home, Bertl and Irmi Reiterer have been unable to use their oven after it was taken over by the injured bird as her nest.
Bertl, who is a taxidermist by trade, said: "I found her by the side of the road where she had obviously been hit by a car and had broken a wing."When I left the kitchen door open she came inside and then hopped into the oven which had just been used and was still warm and refused to come out.
17 years later and Sushi still remains, and now the couple say that they can't imagine life without her, promising that the relationship will be until death do us part.
The now elderly pigeon recently suffered a stroke according to vets which has meant she can't even fly into the oven any more, and needs to be lifted up – or alternatively if nobody is around to move her she has taken to sleeping behind the rubbish bin in the kitchen.
Irmi, 77, says that the couple have to wait until the pigeon decides to go for a walk around the house before they can use the dishwasher as it disturbs her while she is sleeping.
"As she doesn't walk much nowadays it means very often that the dishes have to be washed by hand."
The besotted pair also say that they spend so much time with their much-loved bird that they almost feel they know what she wants without speaking.
Bertl, 84, said: "She follows Irmi around all over the place, but she isn't a great fan of being in my company too much because I like to pick her up and she doesn't like that."In her old age she actually isn't a fan of many people and doesn't particularly like visitors when somebody comes to see us she comes over and pecks them on the foot to make sure they know they are not welcome. That they need to leave."
The family vet Heide Maria Müller who is looking after the bird in Salzburg said: "Susi is a very unusual case. I understand that pigeons can live up to 20 years. But in the wild no bird would manage to live that long.
"Obviously where she is with plenty of good food and no predators she has a good chance of reaching an even higher age," she added,n the wild pigeons live 5-6 years but the world's oldest recorded pigeon was a German bird named the Kaiser, who was a captured German pigeon from World War 1 that died aged 33.
The US Signal Corps made him a POW after he was caught and he was used in their breeding program. Hatched in the year 1917 as shown on his leg band he died in October 1949.
It made him the oldest pigeon on record and he too ended up with a taxidermist, his remains are on show in the National Museum in Washington DC.