The Owl Encounter

This morning we were reading (imagine that!) Jim Arnosky's "All About Owls" (great books by him, by the way!) and I remembered something that happened a whole year ago and I NEVER TOLD YOU! This is too good not to share, but at the time, the only pictures were on my husband's phone. This morning I asked him if he would email them to me, which he did.

What you are about to see is incredible! Especially if you've never seen a real owl up close. You see, my husband grew up out in the country where his mother still lives. Lots of open spaces and old fencing. One night last December, husband was out there with his brother and his mom told him she heard screaming all night long the night before. She thought it was an owl, but was so amazed at the screaming and how long it screamed. Husband and BIL went out to investigate and found this Great Horned Owl stuck in a fence...dead.

You can see the size of this beautiful creature and imagine how sick we all were to realize it had been stuck in that fence, dying all night. There wasn't a mark on it.

Isn't it amazing how alive he still looks?! The colors were just amazing.

Whooo's looking at you! Sorry...couldn't resist! :)

So BIL wrapped him up and put him in the freezer and started making calls. You see, when you live in a TINY town out in the boondocks, you KNOW people! So he called a sheriff friend who said that it couldn't be avoided, the DNR would have to be called in. So, after much prayer and hoping that we'd be able to have him stuffed and mounted, we called the DNR. They immediately came and confiscated him. BOO HOO! We were so sad. They are protected (of course) and apparently there is a huge waiting list of schools wanting such a speciman. WE'RE a not huge school wanting him!!! Drat!

So there you have it. The owl encounter.

Well, it's ridiculously cold out and everything's covered in ice. These pictures inspired some art, so here's what we got:

So here's daughter's drawing. She had been particularly interested in the claws when we read, so she drew them with special care.

And here's son's. He's really improving (drawing has never been his strong suit, or even his interest--but that is changing!).

AND THEN! We used our Paper Toys links to make this beauty!