I have a small problem in my fridge. For the past 24 hours every time I open the fridge door I startle when I see its small body. I have a dead pigeon in the fridge, and it's what's for dinner. I think it will be for dinner tomorrow because I didn't have the emotional strength to face it today. Mike offered to help by looking up instructions on how to clean a pigeon on youtube but he was unwilling to deal with the practicalities of cleavering the pigeon in half and taking out it's pigeon guts. This task will be left to me. So here is how I ended up with the pigeon.
About 9 months ago we bought a lab puppy from a jolly farmer in the countryside surrounding the capital city. Actually Mike thought he had found his Tunisian BFF because this guy had a dream shop/workspace area and a Toyota 4x4...and he had guns, which is a rare thing in Tunisia. It turns out that our rolly polly lab pup was rolly polly because our farmer friend hunts wild boars and fed the meat to the pups. She hit hard times when she came to our house. Anyway, we have been wanting to go back and visit him on the farm every since so yesterday we jumped in the car and went for a drive.
We had so much fun seeing his family again and all the animals: geese, turkey, and multiple breeds of dogs. As we were sitting there sipping mint tea one of his farm hands ran up, grabbed a rifle, and ran out. Ahlem yelled, "Mom! Is he going to kill someone?" No...they all laughed, he likes shooting birds. So sure enough, about 10 minutes later shots were fired and then he came running back in with a dead pigeon. Ahlem's face grimaced, "Is he dead?" "Yes." Our farmer friend chuckled as he whisked the bird away. The problem was Ahelm couldn't leave it alone. Intrigued by the life and death scene that just played out before her eyes, she kept going and touching the bird. Finally she said, "I'd like to hold it" and so she picked it up...and then it's head flopped over and she screamed and dropped the bird to the ground. So our farmer friend decided it was time to teach her the facts of life...he took her by the hand and started plucking the pigeon...in 5 minutes time we had a naked pigeon and a girl with a handful of feathers which she was thrilled about. Then he proceeded to decapitate the pigeon in front of her...which again to my shock and amazement she watched and asked practical questions about it. He then wrapped it in plastic wrap and handed it to her. As we drove home from the farm the plastic-wrapped bird with the bloody stump from the head was in her lap, her prized possession He told her how to flavor it with spices and she is insisting that she do this herself. This is after mommy gets the courage to cleave the pigeon and clean it....so this is my problem as it stands. My 6 year old can handle the realities of meat-eating better than I can. And this goes into the category of "you never know what you will experience today." All I can remember when looking at the small pink thing in our fridge is my friend saying "Pigeons are just rats with wings." Yum.
