It's occurred to me that a ground squirrel or a city robin is in some ways wilder than these wolves, because although they might live in a city, no one is managing their day-to-day life.
There's the robin redbreast, for example, which symbolizes the wise and gentle nature that Mary will soon adopt, note that the robin is described as " not at all like the birds in India" .
One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird, one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child.
So I think that when you see a pigeon or a robin, one should appreciate that they are the end products of a long evolutionary history, that there were many other forms that came before them.
Then, to complicate the ruin, she cut it down one third, and confidingly sent the poor little romance, like a picked robin, out into the big, busy world to try its fate.