A pigeon walks into the Ashby Fire Department.
It’s not a Central Massachusetts-themed one-liner, but the beginning of a quest to reunite a lost bird with its owner.
An animal control officer was called upon to track down the owner of a domesticated white pigeon that walked into the fire station in the small town north of Fitchburg on Wednesday.
The bird did not seem afraid of humans and remained at the station, resting on a firetruck, until firefighters corralled it into a workout room and called town Animal Control Officer Victoria Gallant, the Ashby Police Department said.
“When I got there, he was just walking around while one of the firefighters was exercising on a bike machine,” Gallant told MassLive on Friday.
After posting about the lost animal on social media and calling a phone number found on a tag on the bird’s leg, Gallant received a call Thursday from the pigeon’s owner, according to the department.
The firefighters had been calling the bird “Pete,” the name written on the band around its leg, Gallant said.
“That’s actually the owner’s name,” she said with a laugh.
The man, from Ashburnham, said the bird and two similar white pigeons he owns had been scared off by a hawk.
“I think this is Ashby’s first ever case of a missing bird being reunited with its owner,” Ashby Police Chief Derek Pepple said in a statement Friday, commending Gallant.
A search continues for the other birds. Ashby Police asked anyone who has spotted them to call the department at 978-386-5652.
