A family has two pigeons as pets who eat and sleep with them

A family of four live, eat, sleep and even go to the supermarket with two pigeons they keep as pets and say they can’t imagine life without them. Lucie and Anton Morris and their two children Austin, 11, and Lainey, four, who already had three dogs, took in Rosie Cheeks the pigeon at the beginning of the year after seeing a post on social media.

“He had injured his wing and had been in a garden in Pontypridd,” Lucie, 31, recalled from her home in Briton Ferry where birds Rosie and Flori are now so woven into the family’s lives they even eat with them at the table at dinner time, and Rosie’s favourite is a Chinese takeaway.

“We picked Rosie up from the house in Pontypridd and we brought him home and nursed him back to health and I just fell in love with him. Anton definitely didn’t want him in the house at the start, especially because we were renovating. So I kind of just sprung the idea of keeping Rosie here with us and he eventually agreed.

“We originally thought he was a girl, hence the name. Lainey actually called him Rosie Cheeks and it stuck. Then we thought he might be lonely so we got Flori three months later.”

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Flori has been reared by humans straight from an egg and was sold to the family online. “She was only a month old when we had her and she’s fitted straight in, although she and Rosie don’t like each other,” Lucie laughed.

“It turns out Rosie only likes humans. Rosie is really dominant and doesn’t let Flori into his space, so they’ve chosen their human mates. Flori does everything with me and Anton is with Rosie.”

While keeping pigeons as pets in the garden might not be terribly unusual, the family’s connection to the pigeons is bizarre. They not only eat with them, even eating off their plates, they also sleep in bed with them and they go with them every time they leave the house.

“They do eat with us,” Lucie said. “Rosie especially will eat off our plates as well. Flori will eat absolutely everything, but a firm favourite for her is cornflakes and blackberries. Rosie loves chips and bread, but will also have a Chinese takeaway whenever he gets the chance.

“If we sit down to eat they’ll be right beside us because they tend to follow us all over the place. Often they’ll call us too, making their sort of purring sound when they’re upstairs to call us to join them.”

As Lucie has a disability and spends a lot of time at home, she thought she might be able to house train the two birds, but to no avail. “They sleep beside our heads on the pillows usually. They don’t poo in the bed but they do their business in a little spot at the side of the bed. We’re trying to train them but they’re not getting the gist of it really. We do tend to spend a lot of time cleaning up after them, but we’ve got a very busy house anyway and we’re a bit different with the three dogs too.”

The dogs - a beagle and two terriers - “love” Rosie and Flori, Lucie said. “They’re all just like a big pack. I’m not sure if the pigeons think they’re dogs, humans, or birds to be honest. They all go out in the garden together and Rosie and Flori have never tried to leave.

“I love how free spirited they are. I love the willingness to stay when they have the full freedom to leave any time. Mostly I love their willingness to trust me to take the best care of them.

“We take them on car journeys as well. Flori loves it the most because she’s very needy. She doesn’t like to be on her own at all. They’ll literally come everywhere with us - whenever we visit family or go to the supermarket. Usually one of us will sit in the car with them while the others go shopping.”

So in love with pigeons is Lucie that she decided to have a tattoo of one on her forearm in tribute to them. “I just love birds. I have always loved them,” she added. “After we rescued our first pigeon, who sadly had to be put down, I decided I wanted to have the tattoo and I think it was just fate I’d end up with Rosie and Flori.

“I don’t really know how long we’ll have them for. I know they can live for 30 years from the egg, so who knows. We’ll just let them lead the way really, but they’ll definitely be here as long as they want to be.”