Snowy's back home.

Eight days after Suzanne M. Farrell-Rush, of Point Salubrious, found a homing pigeon tapping at her kitchen window, the bird returned to its home in Ottawa.

Snowy, as the bird was named by Mrs. Farrell-Rush, disappeared Aug. 16 while participating in a race in Ottawa during a fierce thunderstorm.

The bird's owner, Alain Latlante, said it got confused and somehow ended up in the north country.

After Mrs. Farrell-Rush noticed the bands on the bird's legs, she notified Mr. Latlante and, because it is not legal to transport live animals across international boundaries without proper paperwork, they decided to release the pigeon near the border in hopes she would find her way back to Ottawa.

Later that day, Snowy showed up again at the home in Point Salubrious.

After a story about the pigeon ran in Friday's Times, Mrs. Farrell-Rush and the newspaper received numerous calls from people willing to take Snowy in.

"I just wanted to find a good, safe home for her," Mrs. Farrell-Rush said. "There was such a tremendous response. Several people called who wanted to adopt her."

"I was out all day yesterday and I asked a neighbor if she had seen her and she said she didn't see her all day," Mrs. Farrell-Rush said Tuesday. "I kept looking all over the neighborhood, but she wasn't there."

At about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday Mrs. Farrell-Rush received a call from Mr. Latlante.

"He said 'our girl's home,'" she said. "He was bubbling. He was so happy that she was home. He said he heard a commotion out by the crates and went out to find her on top of her crate."

Mr. Latlante owns more than 100 homing pigeons and doves.

"He said she was waiting until she knew she had enough strength to make the trip home before she left," Mrs. Farrell-Rush said. "I kind of miss her when I look up on the roof and she's not there. But I was delighted to hear she made it home."

Mrs. Farrell-Rush had set up a home for Snowy in Port Leyden through correspondence with the Four Winds Club.