Strangers rescue peacock from peril on Victoria street
Strangers rescue peacock from peril on Victoria street
After living in his downtown Victoria neighbourhood for more than 30 years, David Ferguson says this was a first.
"It’s like seeing a goldfish in a school of black fish," Ferguson says, pointing to where he noticed the peacock wandering along the busy street. "It’s like, what is this doing here?"
Meanwhile, Kirk Van Ludwig was working outside his Autonomous Furniture store when he noticed what seemed like the setup for a joke.
"Why did the peacock cross the road?" Van Ludwigsmiles.
At the same time, Logan Jacobsen was hanging Christmas lights before he started capturing the bold bird on camera.
"There’s a peacock running down the street!" Jacobsen laughs.
But the sense of surreal fun quickly turned to very real fear for the peacock’s safety.
"It was getting tumbled about by the big wheels of the truck," Ferguson says.
"Like any moment it was going to get smoked," Van Ludwig recalls with a wince.
"I didn’t want to see roadkill," Jacobsen says.
That’s when Jacobsen announced he was going to pluck the peacock from his potential peril.
"I said to him, 'Watch your face!'" Ferguson recalls. "I though that bird’s going to poke his eyes out or something."
What Ferguson and Van Ludwig didn’t know was that this was not Jacobsen's first rodeo.
"I grew up catching turkeys and chickens," Jacobsen smiles.
When little Jacobsen wasn’t cuddling cute creatures on his family’s hobby farm, he was practising to be a prolific poultry picker-upper.
"I just wanted to save this peacock’s life I suppose," Jacobsen says. "So I grabbed the bird."
"Then we corralled him into the back gated area behind our studio," Van Ludwig adds.
While Jacobsen and Van Ludwig kept the peacock safe behind a fence, Ferguson started making calls.
He was told the bird had likely wandered far from its home in Beacon Hill Park, but there was no official help available.
"I could have walked away. I felt like it," Ferguson recalls. "But it’s that 'do the right thing moment.'"
So Ferguson asked Jacobsen to pick up the peacock from the enclosure and carry him to his car.
"[Ferguson ] suggested we put the peacock in his PT Cruiser," Van Ludwig says.
With the 'P-T' now standing for 'peacock transportation,' Ferguson committed to cruising the bird back home.
He filmed footage of the peacock peering at him in the rear-view mirror.
"I felt like I was in a French movie," Ferguson smiles. "Instead of a femme fatale, it was a peacock in the back seat."
As the duo drove across the downtown core, Ferguson says the bird pooped once and peered out the window often.
The peacock calmed down after they passed the buildings and approached the trees. When Ferguson parked in the park, the bird popped out of the back door.
"I wanted to hug it or commune with it," Ferguson smiles. "But the bird kept going."
Perhaps he was going to tell his feathered flock a joke that begins with a peacock crossing the road and ends with a punchline about a PT Cruiser and the kindness of strangers.
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