Cecil the great horned owl, my ferruginous hawk-trapping lure, went back to the Edmonton Wildlife Rehabilitation Center a few days ago. I miss him greatly. He is only a working owl for part of the year, and he had to go home sometime. He spends most of his year rather commodious aviary at the rehab center glaring at the other owls suspiciously and totally terrorizing the volunteers. In fact, Cecil has quite the reputation of being a king-hell bastard. He has already even sent a girl to the hospital to get stitches after he raked her across the shoulder with his talons as she tried to clean his enclosure.
I find this shocking, because I spent the past several months showing Cecil off to anyone who was interested in meeting him. He was comfortable being held by almost anyone. I had a totally positive relationship with Cecil. He was often grouchy, but never aggressive. He would get a little touchy when somebody came between him and his road-kill meals. The worst he would do was refuse to cooperate by hanging upside-down on your glove when you tried to handle him. By the end of the season he even gave up this habit.
He was a great companion, and I’m glad he came with my trapping partner and I on our many-hundred mile journey across the Canadian prairies. He was definitely the hardest working member of our crew, and the whole time he was a model citizen. He stood up to angry ferruginous hawks for us, he stayed in motels with us, he napped in parks with us, and he even came into restaurants with us. Cecil even once hopped into a dho-gaza net by accident, and with only a bit of resentment allowed us to take him out.
Thanks, Cecil.
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