Brooke Ciardi, outreach coordinator at Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center (MCASAC), was outside photographing adoptable dogs when she noticed a pigeon sitting really close by, watching everything she was doing.

She asked around to see if any other staff members had come across the curious pigeon, and they said the bird had been hanging around outside the shelter for several days. Intrigued, Ciardi went back outside to check on the pigeon and make sure she was OK. What the pigeon did next completely took her aback.

“She immediately just hopped onto my shoulder, and I was like, ‘Oh, you are definitely not a wild pigeon,’” Ciardi told The Dodo.

For the entire rest of the photo shoot, the pigeon refused to leave Ciardi’s side.

“She just wanted to stay with me … she hopped on my head and just sat there,” Ciardi said. “She didn’t want to leave.”

The extra-friendly pigeon stayed on top of Ciardi’s head as she came back inside MCASAC’s building. The shelter staff concluded that based on how she was behaving, there was no way she hadn’t been domesticated at some point — all she wanted was to be around people.

They decided to name her Valley and to put her up for adoption. That way, she could go live with a family who could give her the love she so clearly wanted.

“It felt like she somehow knew this was the right place to be, that we were people who were going to care about her and take care of her,” Ciardi said.

Before long, a woman from New Jersey came across Valley’s story, fell in love with her and drove all the way down to Maryland to pick her up and take her home. Now, Valley gets to spend the rest of her days in her forever home, where she roams around the house as she pleases.

Even though some people might not be used to thinking of pigeons as pets, it used to be very common, and to this day, many people enjoy the company of domesticated pigeons.

“Humans and pigeons have this history of working together and being friends … The pigeons that you see outside are the exact same pigeons people have inside as pets, and they thrive as pets,” Ciardi said. “You meet them and you realize they’re these very gentle, very friendly, really beautiful pets. I wish people realized that about them.”

That being said, Ciardi said she’s never encountered any pigeon — or any bird for that matter — who was quite as outgoing and loving as Valley.