Short fate...
The excitement didn't last long.
Just a week ago mom made a post featuring us getting new doves. That happened on Saturday. Our originals are both males, but the newcomers was a juvenile female and one male. I named the girl Svetochka and the male (first name) Kamen. They’re Russian words for Light and Stone respectively.
On Sunday things were chaotic. All the men were not letting my girl rest. She was malnourished as well, so I was worried she might freeze to death, also due to the boys’ awful behavior towards her by not letting her sleep with them and not letting her eat in peace. One moment I will never forget is when she landed on my hand and sat there. She had associated me with protection probably, because the others couldn’t get to her there. That was when I felt how weightless she was.
That should’ve been the moment I realized they were going to kill her.
I should’ve taken her to a separate cage where she could grow and recover in peace. That’s when I should’ve realized that everything was going downhill faster than imaginable.
On Monday I was restless and paranoid. I couldn’t even focus on my work, because I had that awful feeling that something was extremely wrong. I was sad because I couldn’t go check on them as often, so my mom did. I called her often. One time she scolded Atlas for aggressively picking on Svetochka, but he didn’t stop. Then Kamen joined from what I would imagine. He was the most aggressive towards her and I believe he got my boys to be too.
From Monday to Wednesday, we are kept in school from 7:30 to 5:30 PM. I usually get home by 6 PM when it’s already dark. I wasn’t great at all knowing that. In our one-hour lunch break I called again, only to hear stressing news.
I ran back to my school after a short walk around my old school. I immediately wanted to just go home. Afternoon class is absolutely pointless. But then I was expecting to wait through a very long, and painful countdown. The first class we had some new words to write. I remember writing them super frustrated. Unexpectedly, to everyone’s surprise, the teacher announced that we only had to stay in school till the second class instead of our usual five. That made everyone scream with joy while I just paused, figuring out what to do with the free time I was going to have and hoped I could save Svetochka. The next break I raced to get my phone and tell mom. I told her we could go to a pet store to buy a bigger cage to isolate Svetochka.
Fast forward after I did all my homework, packed my stuff and ran to get to mom outside so we could go to the car and get a cage. In the store there was some debate over the size I wanted and what was necessary. After some confusion over a cage with a hole in it we chose on which we first thought was 50 levs - turned out it was 50 euros. Sucks. We still bought it.
We got home. I immediately started setting up the cage by emptying it of perches because I knew she wouldn’t really need to fly. It was very cold. I panicked and went to check on the girl… My heart hit a wall… My little baby was sitting in a corner of the aviary with all the wind blowing her. I did not hesitate to open the cage and get her.
When I took her in my hands, she didn’t move. Her feet were cold. I thought that was the end, but when I put her in the cage she moved her head a little and went to sleep again. I tried to get her on a perch, but she couldn’t balance well, so I put her on the bottom of the cage and brought her inside my room next to the heater to hopefully heat her up. Then I brought some food and gave her water. She drank a little, but only when her beak touched it. Then I checked her pupils’ reaction under direct light… and I didn’t see a reaction. I didn’t know what to do, so I just left her in the room alone.
I went downstairs and sat in thoughts. What had gone wrong? As the nerd I am, I started a g-mail message, which I was going to send to myself. I planned to write every new symptom and overall condition of my “patient”. I have pasted it lower, but you’re warned. These things are what I observed.
After 30 min. I went up to stay with her. I put her next to the wall that gets heated from the fireplace downstairs. It was warm. At first I didn’t suspect anything, but then she had a burst of energy and flapped almost panicking. This kept happening more often. I took her to my desk. She couldn’t breathe normally anymore. She had to take big gulps of air. Then her legs couldn’t support her weight. That’s when I knew, she wasn’t going to make it through the night. The loss of control of balance, muscular paralysis, hard breathing and panic attacks, and then confirmed blindness in both eyes indicated neurological damage.
(I put cotton to help her stay in place and not fall over when breathing)
She had one more panic attack due to a slight loss of consciousness, but didn’t flap her wings, just extended them and her neck. After my dad left with his blind optimism and hope, it was just me and my mom. Svetochka was no longer able to move. Her neck was also paralyzed. Her eyes couldn’t close even when I touched the eyelids. I knew it was only a matter of time before she ran out of oxygen to the brain and heart, which were probably the only organs working. My mom cupped her in her hands and pet her lightly. Then, Svetochka’s neck loosened even more. Her head dropped and… well she wasn’t breathing any longer. I just broke down for the rest of the evening and night.
Read my notes if you want. I’m sorry.
(Numbers are time of the evening. Note how quickly this escalated.)
19:19
condition worsening
-panics
-no longer can support body on legs
still breathing very heavily
-from the mouth
no balance regained - worsened
-___________________________________-
19:30
condition critical
-no neck strength
-no control over muscles
not opening mouth to breathe. *opening a little
-breathing more normally
-panic attack *s
no reactions to close eye if touched or in direct light
-____________________________________-
19:3?
condition critical
- no strength left
-slow breathing
-small response to shock of loss of consciousness
-no balance
-__________________________________-
19:42
picked up
-no energy
-no reaction of the pupils when in direct light
-loss of consciousness
-time of death - 19:46
SVETOCHKA
2025-2026
Likely a late brood.
2 1/2 months old possibly.
-- I’ll feel guilty forever —
We discussed it with mom. What happened is - the boys caused brain trauma (concussions) due to their aggressive pecking in the head. I named the newcomer Adolf.
I’m sorry.
Thanks for sharing this post about Svetochka. It's a very honorable thing to rescue an animal & give it a new best life.