Owners of small pets advised to look out for predatory birds

SUFFOLK SUN - Christine Parrish was surprised to see the large bird, 2 feet high, she said, in the vacant lot next to her home in the Riverfront section of northern Suffolk. Then, to her horror, she realized the small, dark ball of fur at the bird's feet was Pixey, her 3-1/2-pound Chihuahua.

"I ran at them, shooing the bird away and there she was," she said.

Pixey was unconscious, with a mark on her forehead where, Parrish said, the bird had pecked her.

"She was bleeding from the mouth and her little foot was dangling from her mangled left leg," Parrish said.

Parrish ran to the house with the dog and wrapped her in a towel.

"I thought I felt a heartbeat," she said.

But the heart was still, as she found out when she raced to the North Suffolk Animal Hospital and Dr. Cathy Gallahorn.

"I could barely believe my eyes," Gallahorn said. "I had heard about this type of thing happening but in five years of practice here I'd never seen it."

She's not sure what kind of bird Parrish saw, but from the description guessed it might have been an eagle or a hawk.

Parrish said it was a large bird with a white head, dark and light brown feathers and a brown speckled white chest.

"This is not a common occurrence," Gallahorn said, "and people should not be panicking."

The veterinarian speculated that the bird might have mistaken Pixey for a large rodent or small mammal running along the ground.

"Dog would not be part of its regular diet," she said.

But Parrish would still like people, especially those with small breed pets, to be aware of the potential for tragedy.

Pixey, who was 4, was a pampered inside dog, a lap dog who ventured outside only for necessary visits - and normally under Parrish's watchful eye.

"We are devastated," she said.

Parrish and her family buried Pixie in their backyard and planted four tulips, one for each year of Pixey's short life, to bloom in the spring.

And as for the bird? Parrish said it hovered around the neighborhood all day after the attack, then disappeared. Late last Friday, Daniel, the oldest son of the family, said he saw the bird roosting in the trees overlooking the marsh that borders the Parrish property.

Phyllis Speidell, (757) 222-5556, phyllis.speidell@pilotonline.com