Barred Owl Travels from Vet's office, to Lutheran Medical, and to Soarin' Hawk
I received a call from the DNR that there was an owl dropped off at a vet's office in Gas City. I made arrangements to pick it up that evening from Mary the vet, knowing I would be making the trip to Ft. Wayne the following morning for my own doctor visits at Lutheran.
That morning, I loaded up my St. Berdoodle, Charlie, and the owl and headed north. Realizing I would be spending most of the morning and into the afternoon with my doctors, I put a call into Bob who was manning Soarin' Hawk's rescue line to see if there was someone close by who could meet me to take the bird the rest of the distance. Bob put me in touch with Mary. Mary would become part of the tag-team, and we decided to meet after my first appointment. Once I arrived at Lutheran, running too close to the appointment time to meet with Mary and knowing I couldn't trust the dog with the owl alone in the vehicle, I decided to take the owl into the appointment with me.
I walked into the office carrying the blue transport box. Linda, the nurse, looked at the box and asked if I had "something live" in it. "Yes," I said. "As a matter of fact, I do."
"May I ask what it is?"
"An owl," I answered. "But it's ok. I checked the entrance and it said 'no guns, no knives and no alcohol allowed' in the building. Nowhere did it say 'no owls'. And besides, technically, he's a patient. He's got an injured eye. So we're good, right?"
The nurse remarked how this was a first for her, and I'm sure a first for the owl as well. Heck, it was a first for me, too. You just never know what kind of circumstances you'll find yourself in when getting an injured bird to where it needs to be.
Click here to follow this bird's progress
