One more story from Marley (oops) Farley Mowat:Â you know how cats like to catch small creatures and bring them proudly inside to show their not-thrilled owners?
Farley had a science teacher who encouraged him to find and study a great horned owl nest, which he did. And–this was in something like 1929, a bit of a while ago–he eventually pocketed one of the fledglings and took it home.
And then later found another one of a slightly different subspecies being tortured by some other boys; he rescued it by trading a prized possession for it.
The tortured owlet stayed a timid thing for life, but the other was “pretty sure of itself and its place in the world.” Which was, thank you very much, with him. Mary’s little lamb had nothing on an owl disappointed that the kid disappeared and went off to school on his bike come September; he went looking for him and landed on his shoulder on a bridge, settling its five-foot wingspan down in triumph and nearly causing a car accident by a startled driver.
He was finally able to bribe his birds to stay home with bacon in the kitchen. But not before the one had extracted a child’s dream of revenge on a nasty teacher. His descriptions of the comings and goings of those owls makes me wonder if JK Rowling picked up any ideas from him.
And there was this: those owls hated skunks. The smell made them furious. They were on them like a mongoose on a cobra, and one time one flew through the open window just as the family was finishing dinner and it settled down next to Farley with its prey. Mind if I join you?
The skunk wasn’t quite dead yet.
Now aren’t you glad your cat likes mice instead?