April 7, (the day before easter) 2007
Written by
Nippon Kan senior uchideshi dog
Genbei
Hatako (in the rear) is a happy dove!
Hatako, our white Nippon Kan dove, flew into the gardens last August and decided to make Nippon Kan her home. She seemed domesticated if a little shy and we worried about her surviving outside during the freezing winter so we bought her a cage where she spent the winter in the Nippon Kan office.
This spring, another dove flew into the Nippon Kan gardens, this time a tan ring-necked dove. The doves fell in love at first sight, and the new dove refused to leave. Jim the uchideshi made a spacious two-room mansion for the new couple out of cardboard packing boxes complete with baths, roosting posts and a basket for sleeping. The day before Easter, Hatako laid her first egg. Homma Kancho put some nesting materials in to the cage and for the next forty eight hours, the ring-necked dove worked without rest to line the basket for a nest. Forty hours later, the second egg was laid. Now the pair takes turns sitting on the nest keeping the eggs nice and warm. The office staff is trying hard to determine how best to deal with this growing family in the months to come.