WHAT 999 PIGEONS ARE WEARING THIS SEASON

by Hattie Ellis (Salisbury)

If he looks at a map of Salisbury, there's been an incident on practically every street. They turn up and act. You can't have a crew say: "We don't know what to do!". More often than before, it's animals.

Pregnant cows do the splits; horses get stuck under low bridges; a lamb down a well; 2 eager terriers with heads stuck in railings near a duckpond; and a snake behind a wall in a flat above a shop. He knows cows kick sideways, horses to the rear.

One day, staff at Midland Bank rang about a panicked flock of pigeons stuck on the new bitumen roof. The crew pitched their ladders; scratched heads; improvised. Someone went to buy craft knives at Woolies. They tried to sooth the birds with words.

For long minutes, they made careful cuts amidst the fluttering commotion. At last the job was done. Up and away the pigeons flew, sporting brand new bitumen sandals, a pair each; up and off, with crew and crowd left earth-bound down on Minster Street.

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What Hattie Ellis says about WHAT 999 PIGEONS ARE WEARING THIS SEASON:

Greg Lee joined the Wiltshire fire service when he was 22 and has worked there ever since, with 15 years on the streets in Salisbury and surrounds. The service has recently set up a rural safety team to provide trained animal rescue. Greg is 6 foot 4 and says: “I’m very tall and have a different slant on everything.” So it was when he talked about the animal aspect of the job, telling me stories that show how fire fighters have to improvise in many resourceful ways in many different scenarios.