Bubble Bath, Take All the Pink Away!

It has been found, that a common dish washing detergent is the cure for sick swans in England. First, what was making these swans in Windsor and Caversham in Reading sick? A bacterial infection on their feathers was making them pink (!) and drying out their feathers so they couldn't stay warm. Yes, the disease has a name: Pink Feather Flamingo syndrome. Now, the British Kingdom could not find out what was causing these poor swans to blush so unhealthily, so they turned to the one kingdom that is the haven for ugly ducklings everywhere. Yes, the Magic Kingdom! Actually, they contacted the Regal Swan Team based out of Orlando, Florida, so that seems close enough.

Apparently, this magical swan protection agency knows a lot about swan feathers, so they were able to isolate the specific bacterium causing the breakdown in the feather oil. But how to kill the bacteria without poisoning the swans while they preen? It was the preening that kept making the swans reinfect themselves. How about a little pixie dust to help those feathers out? Well, how about Tinkerbell's cousins the fairies? I dunno. Pixie dust sounds better than Fairy Liquid. Fairy "liquid" makes me think something unseemly or untoward happened to those poor fairies to extract said liquid. Okay, trying very hard not to connect those dots. Okay, again, failing miserably. The cleaning detergent is green! It's made of fairies! We've got to stop them. Somehow. Ahem. How did Charlton Heston get in here?

So, good news for Windsor's pink swans. Washing with Fairy (as the Brits say it) for two weeks cleared up the pinkitude. I liked the idea of pink swans, but not if that meant they'd be shivering themselves to death and immunosuppression. Besides, after washing with mild green Fairy, they'll have wings as soft as their face. Hmm, that jingle doesn't translate so well to the avian set.

Story contribution by my 10,000th visitor, Mariposa (you're welcome!).