I put a dry towel on a shoe box then laid it there. The chill had set in so I put on the heater and covered the box so she would not be disturbed by the light. My 3 kids took turns taking a peek. Then Russia started shrieking that the bird was feebly trying to stand up. When I went to check, the owl was already hopping out of the box and attempting to fly!
I got the cage where we kept Red's hamsters then. The cage opening was quite small but Richard was able to squeeze her in. He earned seven painful punctures from her talons as she tried to flee!
She was visibly shaken from her injury. The commotion as we tried to get her into the cage stressed her out. I demanded that she be left alone in the room with me. I covered her cage with cloth and put her on the corner to rest.
In the morning, I was ready to give her away. As I cleaned her poop on the floor, I told her that we could not possibly care for her. Her left wing was visibly broken, and her left eye remained shut making her seem half blind. Amazingly, she responded by turning her head 180 degrees to face me and looked at me in the eye! It struck me because she seemed to be saying, "How dare you give me away like this!"
That kind of owly look shook me. I stared at her as she stared back at me. She was good in doing eye contact. She held me with her good eye trying to size me up as she tilted her head on the side. I started talking to her. I told her that Czar and the guard picked her up on the road so broken. I said that we thought that she would slowly die but we were happy to see her get up on her feet. She behaved like she was intently listening.
She made her wings flap but the broken one just stayed limp on her side. I had to fix it as the cage caught her feathers and the wires could injure her more. I went to hang her cage among the chimes lined up on our porch. With her every movement, the chime she had been attached to would tinkle and she was visibly annoyed with the sound and the movement. Ha ha she looked funny when she gets intimidated. Her face would look cross and she would throw a tantrum by flapping her wings and flicking her head. She would glare, and glare, and glare!
........In Memory of my wild owl. Rest In Peace, Luvli....
Luvli expired January 28, 2010 at about 8:00 in the evening. I came to love that wild owl. She left me broken. I weep because I intended to keep her as my own baby. No matter how difficult to raise her, I took the responsibility. I just thought that she came to stay... That she came to live with us. Now she's gone.
I came home quite late that evening. I gave Luvli her dinner (a live tiny white rat). She killed the rat by pecking it with her killer beak and crushing the little body with her claw and talons. I don't want seeing how she did this and I got desentisized knowing that she must eat or else she would starve herself to death.
She would usually guzzle the crushed rat whole down her throat but she was staying there motionless.
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