Mind you I have been through a period of not feeling overly terrific... After Young Men's each week Jonathan is usually home shortly after 10. Feeling horrible and not sleeping well for weeks I decided to head to bed shortly after 10 and decided I wasn't going to wait up. Around 11PM Jonathan decides to come home. He came in our bedroom and beckoned for me to get up and come with him out to the garage. I wasn't going. He promised it was worth the effort and I wouldn't be disappointed. I was skeptical. He reminded me how much I loved him and that I really should follow him to the garage. I decided to give in and trudged to the garage. I stood there not completely convinced this was worth getting out of bed when he opened the trunk of the van and like a shot out swooped a huge barred owl. Stunned by the sudden swoop Jonathan says, "Holy cow... it can fly!" So here's the story. On the way home from the church Jonathan drove past an owl that was sitting in the middle of the highway. Driving past he was intrigued that it just sat there and didn't move. Peeked by curiosity, he stopped turned around and drove by it again. It still didn't move. So he turned back around again and slowed down next to it. He was concerned that it was going to get hit in the road so he tried to kick it a little with his foot and encourage it to move to the side of the road. It just sat there. Stunned by its response and feeling bad for it he really wanted to move it from the middle of the road. Then he had a brilliant thought - maybe he could just sneak up behind it, grab it and then move it to the side of the road. It was a great thought until the realization that owls can turn their head 180 degrees and the likely hood of a "sneak" was slim to none. However, if you know Jonathan you know that he was willing to take the risk. He walked up behind the owl, picked it up and sat it on the side of the road. Wow, that went well. He watched it for a few minutes and at the point when normal people would drive off, wait I don't think normal people turn around and stop for owls, anyway, when I would have gone home he got thinking. He works with a surgeon that is a falconer and has spent some time helping injured birds of prey. Sooooo Jonathan thought he could take the owl home and then take it to the surgeon. Well if you can pick an owl up once surely you can pick it up twice right? He open the back of the van reached down and grabed the bird set it down in the back of the van and quickly shuts the tailgate. I guess now the only thing left to do is drive home and show the wiffie. Am I the only one that would have had a twinge of concern driving in the dark of night with a bird of PREY? PREY would indicate that they are the ones that typically prey upon other critters with deathly sharp talons. Suppose Mr. Owl prefers flight over a scenic trip in the family van and gets a little flustered. Could we have wrapped it in a blanket, tied a jacket around the wings, left it on the side of the road na - just pitch it in and head for home. Soooo needless to say Jonathan was a bit surprised when it FLEW out of the van. He knew I would enjoy seeing it as I am one of those geeky bird watchers that walks around with binoculars wrapped around my neck carrying Sibley's bird identification book for fun. We have multiple bird books that we keep in the kitchen for any spottings. I know nerd. Anyway, this was quite amazing to see the owl fly around the garage. I grabbed my book and we ID'ed it. It was even more amazing to see the owl swoop up into our attic above the house and not come down for a week. I would dare say even more amazing than that was to watch Jonathan spend countless attempts to climb into the attic and retrieve the bird only to be thwarted by tight corners and insulation. And even more down right dazzling was the owl poop that soon spotted the entire garage, did I mention it had pooped in the back of the van on the way home? Ah, didn't think so. Alas, after being captive in our attic for a week it finally departed. It was indeed fun to see. It was also a little nerve wracking loading up the kids in the van. I like to nibble on my children who's to say the owl wouldn't have similar thoughts? Nonetheless, he can indeed fly and has gone.
4 comments:
Very cool story. And you have a very brave husband. ;)
most guys bring home stray dogs
This had me laughing so hard. You're a great writer! I love reading your stories. :)
Oh my goodness Amber, you make me laugh out loud when I read your blog. This story reminds me of a story I once heard about an Idaho boy who hit a coyote in Malad (his name starts with a J and ends with an -ared) and got out to see if it was okay. It was still breathing so he thought he'd throw it in the back of the truck (the truck had a camper shell on it). A knocked out coyote needs someone to watch over it so said Maladite's little brother and cousin got in the back of the enclosed camper shell with the coyote. Perhaps it was to perform life support if necessary. Well, you can imagine everyone's surprise when not too far down the road the coyote awakens, not particularly pleased with his surroundings and starts growling. IT MUST BE AN IDAHO THING!
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