How’d he do Grandad asked Nineteen minutes Last time was seventeen Not your best time Hom Homer Something happened to you No wonder you’re two minutes behind your best time He picked me up and held me up to his chin giving me tiny kisses as if kisses would help me regrow tail feathers This was a little embarrassing but Otto was prone to overreacting wherever I was concerned Call it being overprotective Or get mushy and call it love Looks like Homer might’ve had a run-in with a hawk Grandad said And looks like it was a close one But don’t worry Otto He’ll grow new tail feathers in no time Otto looked alarmed Poor Homer he said Here I’ve put down fresh newspaper a little bit of cracked corn and your favorite millet mix Nice clean water All for you I heaved a big sigh and gazed gratefully at my rooftop world It consisted of a large cage with three sides made of chicken wire and the back covered in wood planks to keep the north wind out I had a cozy wooden box inside the cage to sleep in lined with soft sweet-smelling hay The cage had a huge swinging door that was almost 4 Homer on the Case
always open Otto kept it closed with a wooden peg at night to keep the occasional city raccoon from getting in and stealing my food But most of the time I was a free ranging pigeon I could come and go as I pleased I think Otto wanted me to have a little freedom and he trusted me to return to my rooftop That’s one good thing about being a homing pigeon we always know how to get back home I pecked hungrily at the food and gratefully let some of the water trickle down my throat Otto grabbed the pencil and clipboard that were kept hanging on a peg I couldn’t help but notice how he always beamed proudly as he carefully recorded my flight times Even times when I was a minute or two late Grandad noticed the cage door wide open You know Otto you really should keep that cage door closed 24-7 he said Otto gave me another gentle caress I know Grandad But Homer wouldn’t like being cooped up all day He can come and go as he pleases He knows where home is Grandad gave a little grunt Well he’s your pigeon Otto Your responsibility What happens to Homer is on your shoulders Just remember there are things like hawks out there 5 Chapter One
I know The two of them headed down the rooftop ladder Otto gave me a wink See you later Homer he called out I felt contented I had flown well I had avoided being ripped to shreds by a hawk and now I had a crop full of cracked corn and millet I sighed and stretched my wings then stepped across the freshly laid-out newspaper Second only to a morning race this was the part of the day I enjoyed the most catching up on world events I usually started with the colorful pages My favorite was a continuing story called Dick Tracy about a really smart detective Today Tracy was once again trying to foil some crooks This time some jewel thieves The alarm bell over a store went CLANG A voice bubble over Dick’s head said This is the third jewelry store looted this week I hope I solve this one before the next store is hit I cooed contentedly Dick Tracy was smart He’d figure it out After I looked at the pages with the bright colors I began the serious stuff I usually went from big headlines to smaller headlines down each page story by story It 6 Homer on the Case
seemed like the bigger the letters the more important the story at least to humans And sometimes that didn’t make sense to me a story about weapons got big letters for example but something about bird populations got tiny letters Anyway I started my morning perusal of the news PRESIDENT OFFERS NEW BUDGET PLAN Here we go again I thought Yet another new budget plan DRAMA IN THE MIDDLE EAST ESCALATES Enough with the drama I cooed The size of the headlines and apparently the importance importance of the news got smaller and smaller as I walked down and across the pages 7 Chapter One
