This is one of two “bathtubs” in the Piazza Farnese in Rome, where mama took this photo of PIGEONS having a drink and taking a little bath right in PUBLIC!!! Pigeons have never been known for their smarts, though, right? Maybe that’s why they are served on so many menus in Rome’s trattorie, haha! 
Okay, I know that was mean but if I were out there with those bird-brains, I’d give them a run for their birdseed, you can be sure of that. Meanwhile, Piazza Farnese has to be one of the most beautiful piazza in Italy, in the world maybe. Mama drove me by it one day and there was the Palazzo Farnese, which is the French embassy, and inside are the Carracci brothers semi-x-rated ceiling frescos that are only to be seen by appointment (hey, the stuff you can get on the internet is far, far worse than these beautiful ceiling paintings) and the front of the palazzo has myriad designs around the windows, done by the brick layers and plasterers who finished the building and who, one of mama’s friends thinks, had a kind of competition to see who could get plastered better than the other!!! Make that ‘get plaster’… 
Well, I think mama has to get another better shot of the plasterers’ work when she’s over there tomorrow because it’s not easy to see the various windows, but they are so, so beautiful. I know I’m a French kitty, but I am just overwhelmed by the beauty of this city and it’s monuments and there are just too many to count each and every day. But I’ll get there…. 
Such a city of opposites. 
Harley meets delivery bike… 
Tomorrow I’ll see even more…I keep my eyes wide open all the time. Just like Johnny Cash, haha. Except when I don’t: 
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You sure live in an interesting place Loulou. Shame that you don’t get to play with the pigeons in person. I have caught two huge wood pigeons since I came here, I don’t get to eat them though. The apes take them to the vet to be saved or er, helped off the coil.
The ape likes pigeons, she says they are so maligned and are really bright. They kiss too. Pffft, they can kiss my……
Luff
Mungo
Hey, ‘off the coil’…I like that, you smart cookie kitty! And I have certainly seen them shuffle…haha.
Pigeons are all over the place here, but in that other little town, mama feeds the turtledoves and I think she thinks that turtledoves are a bit more attractive than these &^$(#&% pigeons. Mama wants to know how they are bright, just for interesting info. They sure were during the war(s) and we may be using them again for communications until all our fingers mutate into iPad pointers.
Aaah Loulou, Pigeons are very sociable animals, they mate for life. This is how Pigeon Racing works – they separate the bonded pairs – horribly traumatic for them. Pigeons do well in the same way that that other maligned beastie, the Rat does. They live well, wherever humans leave food waste (or other waste ahem) and because of this are prone to being hated (like rats) – maybe because they remind humans of how crudely they treat their environment? Pigeons are also subject to awful cruelty from humans. Me and the ape think that they are beautiful, me for different reasons to her haha
Their intelligence is well documented. As social animals they have to learn behaviours that will keep them and their flock alive. They are real opportunists, spotting the tiniest gap in an eco or other system, where they can breed and kindly raise their young.
They learn very quickly, and sadly, Pigeons were some of the first animals to be used in laboratory experiments to study the concept of the cognitive mind and its workings.
This is a massive link to a Google search about Pigeons and intelligence, there’s lots of reading there. Hope the link gets past your spam killer!
https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=-BRvVIfuBcnH8gf2zoKICA&gws_rd=ssl#q=Why+Pigeons+are+intelligent
It is sad to the ape, how the animals that match a perceived standard of beauty and behaviour are often defended against those who do not (says the ape zzzz) but I kinda agree with her. At Everycat Towers we have a tradition of having animals that no one else wants because they have a disease (FIV for eg) or are considered ugly or different, or old. Humans are mean to their own kind because of similar reasons, this makes me and the ape very, very sad.
People have made the environment where Pigeons thrive, then hate the Pigeons for taking advantage of that fact. It ain’t the Pigeons lacking in intelligence methinks.
Urban Foxes are now getting a similar bum rap in the UK 🙁
Personally, I’m fed up with our Wood Pigeons today, it’s raining and they are up in the big pine tree where I can only chatter at them and thrash my tail about.
Luff Mungo xx
OH, thank you so, so much for the site and for the info. I am completely in agreement with you, Mungo, and your anthro is so, so smart! I love having my eyes opened, even wider than they are!