A friendship to crow about

DOG SAVES BIRD

- KYLE MELNICK

AUTUMN Buck sometimes feels like she’s in a Disney movie.

Her border collie, Meeko, recently took a liking to an injured wild crow that showed up in her yard in Portland, Oregon. To her surprise, the crow felt likewise, and now they’re “thick as thieves,” she said.

The two now run around together and take naps side by side. Sometimes the crow pecks on the glass door to get Meeko to come outside and play.

“I do have these moments of: I can’t believe this is real life,” Buck, 37, told The Washington Post.

Buck named the crow Russell after actor Russell Crowe (the crow’s middle name is Sheryl in case it’s a female; they have no idea).

Meeko and Russell play fetch, scrutinise strangers at the front door, pass a pinecone back and forth and spend a lot of time chasing each other.

The relationship began in June, when Buck got a call from her brother-in-law, Casey, who lives next door.

A large bird nest had fallen from a roughly 24m-tall fir tree in his yard, leaving a small crow dead on the patio. Another small crow sat in a nearby rhododendron plant, trembling, staring at the dead crow and struggling to walk.