Wildlife

Tuesday morning woke up to my oldest son, Jake, bringing me an owl. He said he was on his way home Monday night when this owl flew up under his truck and promply broke its wing. :(

So of course he brings it to me! LOL!

You have to understand that our family is big on rescuing animals. We're down on animals at the moment, but we do still have our rescued crow (although it's with Mom in Anaheim). This owl that Jake brought was, of course, VERY wild. We looked it up and it looked to be a young Great Horned at first glance. Hissed at us, and clicked its beak, with huge yellow eyes fearsomely glaring at us.

We transferred him out of the laundry basket Jake put him into a pet carrier. I put in some water and some cat foot (thinking he MIGHT eat that). Then covered him with a blanket so he would feel protected and not freak out with one of us or our pets walking by.

Have to tell you this -- we have an Amazon Double Yellow parrot. There are only 2 things we have found that our parrot is afraid of -- snakes and owls! Yes, Hughie was just beside herself until we covered up the owl!

Anyway, I didn't want to call the animal shelter. I have found that they really do NOT know animals; they just grab them. I remembered that there is some sort of wildlife rescue down in Espanola, but had no idea where it was or even the name of it. That became my mission that morning with phone calls about the owl. So I called Stray Hearts -- they're supposed to be the humane shelter here. But there was no answer, so left a message. I called our vet -- and lo and behold, they knew about this wildlife place! They promptly gave me the number and wished me luck.

So I called them. They are called the Wildlife Center, and yes, they are in Espanola. They will come and pick up or have someone from the Forest Service come and get injured animals. They are absolutely fantastic!!! Since we were going to Santa Fe for hockey that evening, I told them that I would bring the owl down on our way, but made sure someone would be there since we would be arriving around dark.

When we got there at dark, the people there took the owl in and immediately took it to the back to x-ray it and then start surgery. We were also told that our owl is a long earred owl, not a young Great Horned. Great Horned owls have their young in January and February only, so if ours was a Great Horned it would be fully grown by now. Long earreds are about a foot tall, so it was quite big! We were told that this place has one of the highest recovery rates in the nation! And that our owl would probably be fine to be re-released back into the wild unless it was really mangled. They have an area where there are animals they keep that will never be able to be released, and the public can view them. But then they have a huge area where the public can't go, and only 2 workers are allowed in there, where they keep all the animals that will be released. They even have an area for the big cats that have been brought in! Of course, no one is allowed in that area, either. Check this place out; it's amazing!

And the place will be e-mailing me with updates on "our" owl!