The Owl Who Took Me Under His Wing ; When Stacey O'brien Adopted an Injured Baby Barn Owl Called Wesley, He Survived Thanks to Her Love and Devotion. Then When Stacey Faced a Life-Threatening Illness Some Years Later, It Was Wesley Who Saved Her [Eire Region]

Daily Mail › August 09, 2009

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Summary

On a rainy Valentine's Day morning in 1985, I fell in love with a four-day-old barn owl. I was working as an assistant biologist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) when one of the scientists who studied owl behaviour called me into his office. He mentioned that there was an abandoned owl with an injured wing, and said, 'Stacey, he needs a permanent home.' The little owl was so tiny and helpless he couldn't even lift his head or keep himself warm. His eyes weren't open yet and, except for a tuft of white down feathers on his head and three rows of fluff along his back, his body was pink and naked. I was smitten beyond reason by his hopelessly goofy appearance. He was the most wonderful creature I'd ever seen, gorgeous in his helplessness. His scrawny body had two little nubs that would eventually become wings, and his ungainly head wobbled from side to side.

Under normal circumstances, a rehabilitation centre would have raised him, using owl puppets to feed him and teach him to live in the wild. But this baby had nerve damage in one wing, so although he might one day have been able to fly well enough to hunt sporadically, his wing could never build up to the level of endurance he would need to survive in the wild. When I first held him in the palm of my hand, I'd never felt so protective of anything in my life.

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The Owl Who Took Me Under His Wing ; When Stacey O'brien Adopted an Injured Baby Barn Owl Called Wesley, He Survived Thanks to Her Love and Devotion. Then When Stacey Faced a Life-Threatening Illness Some Years Later, It Was Wesley Who Saved Her [Eire Region]

I named the owlet Wesley. The name seemed perfect; cute enough for a baby owl yet wise and sophisticated for when he grew into a distinguished adult bird of prey. I cupped him in my hands, held him against my cheek, and said, 'I am your mother now.' Wesley went everywhere with me from then on. I even wrapped him in baby blankets and held him in my arms while grocery shopping, to keep him warm during that first cold winter. When Wesley opened his eyes for the first time, he stared right at me.

'Hello, Wesley,' I said. 'Sc...

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