Gran who rescued pigeon from cat ends up with lodger

Now, almost a week later, the pensioner is struggling to remove the bird from her living room after it walked in the back door and made itself at home in front of the fireplace.

The pigeon has been in her home in Granton since last Wednesday, and despite ushering it out of the ground-floor flat on three occasions, it always finds a way back in.

Mrs McMillan, 79, said: “The pigeon looked as if he was injured in the back garden so I went out and I threw wild bird seed down, and he started taking it.

“Not long after I went in the house, my back door was open and in the house he came, so that’s making me think that he definitely belongs to somebody. He made straight for my fire and sat down.

“If I put him back out, he sits on top of the hut and looks at the door, and as soon as the door opens, in he comes. Bold as brass he comes up the steps and in the door. I can’t get rid of him.

“It’s as if it is his house, not mine. I have never seen anything so bizarre. He has just attached himself.

“I think he is somebody’s pet that’s been blown away in the wind and been injured. He’s beautiful to look at. Somebody must love him because he’s too tame. I just hope somebody recognises him.”

Mrs McMillan, a mother-of-two and grandmother-of-three, has been feeding the pigeon sweetcorn and giving it water from a saucer. She contacted a pigeon fancier association in Edinburgh for advice but has yet to hear back. The great-grandmother-of-one plans to put her “permanent lodger”, who is sandy and white in colour, outside when the weather improves and not let it back in. She added: “My son Matt, who can pick him up, says he thinks I have got a visitor for life.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish SPCA said it is believed to be a captive bird.

Scottish SPCA Chief Superintendent, Mike Flynn, added: “Feral pigeons would immediately look for a means of escape if they were trapped inside a building, so it is more likely that this bird is a fancy pigeon which has been bred and kept for showing purposes.

“It appears to be used to being indoors and in close contact with humans, so the bird must have an owner somewhere, although we would expect it to have an identification ring.”

Not so wild

• EQUESTRIAN Stephanie Noble moved her horse into her living room after a quarrel with neighbours.

It was reported in January this year that she shares her home with three-year-old filly Grey Lady Too after a series of disputes with locals near Stornoway on Lewis.

• Barry Shaw, 22, moved his birds of prey into his home in Loanhead, Midlothian, after they were tortured.

He was delighted to have his Harris Hawks returned after thieves took the pair from their aviary in January.

But he discovered that one had apparently suffered burns to its wings and chest.