The Little Owl Who Could

This is Hooty the Owl. He was brought to my friend and colleague, Dr. B for evaluation after being hit by a car. Dr. B took x-rays and found a complete fracture of the main bone in one of his wings. Experts recommended euthanasia due to the unlikeliness of release back into the wild. And then the magic of social media took over………….

I saw Dr. B’s posts about Hooty, and volunteered to take the owl. (Of course my husband didn’t know I was scheming to keep the raptor in our spare bedroom if needed – but you know, details).

Here is the x-ray of his fracture:

Once I received more details of Hooty’s medical condition, I began soliciting help from veterinary specialists in the area. The sound of crickets was deafening – no big surprise there;)

So where to turn next……….. the light bulb went on – obviously my engineer friend could help me devise a contraption to fix the wing! I should probably mention that when I say “engineer,” I more specifically mean the engineer for the winning Indy Car team. Oh, and also, it was the weekend of the Indy 500.

I’m sure that my text message about an owl with a broken wing was a top priority for my friend while he was in the peak season of Indy car racing. And yet, he responded immediately asking specific questions about the fracture location and expressed his willingness to help me with Hooty:) Props to my friend!!!

In the meantime, I had to figure out the logistics of caring for Hooty beyond fixing his medical condition – things like where would he recover, where would he live permanently, and how would DNR feel about us keeping a raptor as a permanent resident from another state?

I contacted the director of “Woofs and Books,” to see if they would like a pet owl for their barn. She was very receptive to the idea and gave me the contact information for a wildlife rehabilitator at “For the Birds.”