Just a few blocks away from the mighty Mississippi River, in downtown Minneapolis, a friendship is thriving.

When it comes to having a pet, Glenda Spindler says there are highs and lows.

“They give you a lot of unconditional love,” Spindler said. “You know how dogs are, especially male dogs, they want to pee on everything.”

A longtime dog owner, Spindler knew what she could handle.

“I never wanted a bird cause they are just too messy,” she said.

So, she relies on Flash, her Pomeranian, for companionship and comfort. It’s much needed; she’s dealing with grief.

Spindler lost her beloved daughter in February, a few months after she found Screech, a pigeon — a very friendly and persistent one.  

Spindler explains the way it all came to be on a fall day in Gold Medal Park.

“I think it came at the right time because I got to see how deeply she fell in love with the pigeon,” Spindler said.

He was a bird no one saw coming.

“He had his nose down and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I was like, ‘There’s a baby bird down there.’ I picked him up and I just hung him on the back of the wheelchair,” Spindler said.

For Flash, it was instant.

“He constantly checked on that baby. They had a bond,” Spindler said.

Spindler was harder to convince, but Screech finally did it.

“Just by coming and cuddling by me,” she said.

And he kept doing it, and doing it. So she kept feeding him and he fed her too.

Screech has had every chance to fly away, but he chooses to stay, giving Spindler and Flash some appreciated attention, and grabbing neighborhood attention, too.  

Neighbor Joe Wellin regularly walks by in wonder,.

“Usually the dogs will chase the pigeons away, or get used to them and just ignore them, but they seem to be friends,” he said.

And they are — Flash, Screech and Spindler need each other.