Palmabella's Passions

There was an interesting saga at my community of "Venezia" this week. The other afternoon, a neighbor, Dana, and her husband walked out of their house and discovered a large live owl sitting on their front wall. Dana, hiding behind the red poinsettia she was carrying, grabbed her phone and started taking pictures, and her husband was worried about their little dog so he grabbed a broom and tried to shoo the owl away. The owl with his huge wingspan flew across the street and perched on another neighbor's wall and then settled next to their fireplace.

Undaunted, Dana took more pictures and got close enough to see the owl had some leather attached to his legs. At this time, another neighbor, Ed, was doing his walking laps around the neighborhood and they started talking about the owl and the leather band on his legs, and the fact that the owl seem to be used to people, so very likely he belonged to someone. Ed suggested Dana call The Living Desert and she immediately got on her cell phone and sure enough, he had been missing for 3 weeks! They would send people out right away to try to retrieve him.

It seemed like it took forever for the crew to arrive but they had to round up the trainer, a van, a carrier, nets and, last but not least, about 6 frozen mice and a frozen rat. They did not want to scare him away while waiting for the Living Desert crew so they redirected some cars and someone went to the gate to direct the van when it arrived.

“Archimedes” the owl was returned to his trainer after his 3 week adventure. He was one hungry boy; and ate at least 5 mice before he left in the van. The trainer could hardly defrost them fast enough but the owl was making happy noises in his cage and so were the trainers who were cheering in the van on their way out of Venezia.

My neighbors were all happy to be part of this dramatic reunion in Venezia and hope this makes a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for “Archimedes” and “The Living Desert.”