When it comes to the bird in his life, Mario Pacheco is besotted. Not only does he ply her with hugs and kisses, he also hand-feeds her whatever her little heart desires.

"Do you want some water, baby?'' he asks solicitously, holding a filled glass for her convenience.

As befits a lady who wants for nothing, Snooky the pigeon returns Mr.

Pacheco's devotion in equal measure, but she also has class. While she enjoys the run of his family home, at night she always returns to the adjacent "apartment'' he built her. There are limits, after all.

Immaculately groomed, the mistress of all she surveys is nothing if not tenacious. She insists on standing by her man -- literally. She not only follows Mr. Pacheco to work, but won't leave him alone once he gets there.

Whether he's indoors or out, riding a lawnmower, driving a truck, cleaning or painting, she keeps her beady eye on him.

"She never leaves me alone,'' Mr. Pacheco says proudly. "When I mow she follows me up and down. She flies into the truck and sits beside me, and if I go in the building she follows me.'' Indeed, there's no such thing as "too close for comfort'' in Snooky's book.

After all, what female doesn't know that resting on a male shoulder and cooing in his ear is a sure-fire way to get attention? In turn, Mr. Pacheco has learned that ruffling her neck feathers makes her coo in his ear.

Of course, true to her sex, Snooky's nosiness occasionally gets the better of her, and she occasionally nips off to see what's going on around the corner, but such is the closeness of their relationship that one call of her name or a special whistle from Mr. Pacheco brings her flying back to his side.

Sometimes, however, as females will, Snooky likes to tease him into looking for her, signalling her whereabouts in, er, pigeon English.

Mr. Pacheco -- a married man with two children -- has been in love with Snooky since first he laid eyes on her. At the time she had been abandoned by her parents after he cut down a tree, accidentally destroying their home. That might have made him a home-wrecker in birdland, but the baby pigeon was helpless, hungry, and incapable of feeding herself, so she placed her trust in her rescuer and hoped for the best.

And The Best is precisely what she has been getting ever since.

While their relationship is 18 months old now, and Snooky is all grown up, she's still Mr. Pacheco's "baby'', and lives a life so pampered that dirtying her pretty little beak at mealtime is beyond comprehension. Instead, she prefers to lay back in her man's arms and be hand fed her special food, morsel by morsel. Well, it worked for Mae West, didn't it? "She's something else,'' Mr. Pacheco chuckles, giving her a kiss.

If not perfectly house-trained, Snooky does mind her manners indoors. While she wouldn't dream of swooping down to swipe food off the dinner plate, she does take a real -- or is it nervous? -- interest in what's cooking from the safety of a china cabinet. A girl can't be too careful, after all, knowing that so many of her relatives have ended up on the wrong end of a recipe.

While life has always been sweet for the devoted duo, there is now anxiety about the future. After 14 years, Mr. Pacheco's present job, and the Devonshire home that goes with it, is ending very shortly. A new job and neighbourhood beckon.

While he's pretty certain his new employer won't mind Snooky tagging along, the pigeon has never been beyond her present boundaries. Amazingly, perhaps, when Mr. Pacheco leaves home on his bike she follows him -- but only to the roadside, then she turns back and waits for his return.

So he wonders: will she continue to stick by the hand that feeds and loves her unconditionally, or will she do the homing pigeon thing and keep winging back to her old location? Gnawing away at his mind, too, is whether the new neighbours -- who he is anxious not to offend -- will view his free-flying friend with the same affection he does, or give him the bird.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro Devoted Duo: Mario Pacheco and Snooky have become inseparable since he rescued her as a tiny chick. Hand-reared to adulthood, the pigeon leads a pampered life, which includes the run of his home. While there's no danger of having her wings clipped, Snooky sometimes takes a temporary break from watching Manuel at work. The pigeon follows the caretaker wherever he goes, both at work and at home, and rarely lets him out of her sight.