[Photo by Matthew Wyche on Unsplash]

At the time of this little event, I was about eight years old.  We were living in Murphy, North Carolina and my mom worked as a teacher in Unaka, North Carolina. My grandma also lived in Unaka.  So, we had plenty of occasions to be traveling between the two places.  Now, if you know the area at all, you know there are heavy woods between the two along a very twisty, turny mountain road. 

On the way back from Unaka one late afternoon in winter, an owl flew out of the dense trees lining the road and right into the side of my dad’s car.  “Whack,” he went down and fluttered into the middle of the road behind us. It was just me and dad and he pulled over immediately. It’s amazing there was a place to pull over because often, the road was just up against a bank or a steep cliff with no option to pull over.

“Stay in the car,” he ordered. He ran to check on it, then ran back to me in the car. “Do we have a towel in the car?” he asked. 

“Yes, I think so.” I responded as I dug under the seat.  I can’t remember why we had it or how I knew it, but there it was.  I pulled it out and handed it to him. Dad put gloves on and told me to as well.  It was winter, so we had jackets on and gloves handy.

Dad ran back to the owl and scooped it up in the towel.  How he always seemed to know how to handle wild animals I’ll never know.  He grew up as a kid in Miami, Florida, yet he always seemed to have a handle on how to deal with wild animals.  He came back to the car with what was not a little hoot owl.  This was a dark brown, grown owl of some variety that stood about 16 to 18 inches tall. Dad had him firmly wrapped up in the towel so he couldn’t move and placed him in the floorboard in front of me.

Dad calmly, but commandingly said, “Place both hands around the towel and keep it firmly wrapped.  Don’t squeeze him, just keep the towel tight so he knows he can’t move.  He’s stunned, but I believe he’ll recover.  As he recovers, he won’t try to fight you so long as he doesn’t feel threatened. Keep your arms extended and your face away from his.” I obeyed.

We had about a 10 minute drive to the house and dad was right.  He started to look back and forth between us, but didn’t fight or attempt to bother me.  When we got to the house dad carefully brought the car to a stop.  “I’ll come around to get him.  Just stay perfectly still.”  As dad exited the car and walked around the front, the owl tried to follow him and continued to look back and forth at us both. 

Dad got him from me and placed him on his extended arm.  As he walked away, he slowly unwrapped the towel.  The owl stretched out his wings and shook them for a second.  He had a wingspan that was 3 and a half to nearly 4 feet wide.  He quickly took flight off to the nearby trees.  He seemed fully recovered.  “Man that guy had massive talons,” dad said as he came back to me, “even through my heavy police jacket, I could feel those claws as I put him on my arm.”  I can’t say we ever saw him again, but it was a beautiful bird and we were glad we gave him a chance to recover.  If we’d left him in the middle of the road, he likely would have been hit again and finished off.  If we left him on the side of the road, stunned like he was, he would have been vulnerable to various predators in the area.  I’ll never forget seeing him spread those massive wings when dad unwrapped that old towel.  Man was I glad we had that towel in the car.

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Why not read the next story in the series? Tales from North Carolina #3: The Wind and the Rain

Or try the Tales from Kentucky Series? Tales from Kentucky #1: The Spider Girl

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