Rescue Update - Pedro The Indian Eagle Owl

On Saturday last my son brought an owlet home when he took the dogs out for a walk at night. We figured that it was an eagle owl which means it is a rarely spotted bird, a raptor predator. It grows to a height of one foot and feeds on vertebrates.

This little guy we found had his wing broken, but we figured that out only after two days since he was not too friendly (didn't expect him to be LOL) We hoped to get a vet to see him but when they heard who their patient would be no one was willing to take chances.

Finally, I took the risk of checking him out myself. What did I find, a bone sticking out of his chest. I also realized then that he couldn't stand properly. A little investigation showed that a kite string was wound tightly around his feet his feet and had cut his leg in several places. It became clear that the kite string was the reason for his broken wing too.

See how his poor little wing sticks out

I have never liked kite flying as I have seen too many birds especially eagles hurt by these shattered glass reinforced strings. I managed to cut the strings out of his legs bit by bit with my son holding the bird. I noticed that his leg was swollen and he hurt badly. He needed immediate medical attention.

I called so many vets and agencies working with rehab of birds, no one responded. Then I chanced upon a news article on my feed it was about a avian and reptile rehab service. Imagine my surprise it was just a block away from where I live. It was 7 in the morning, I still decided to go ahead and call them more surprises awaited me.

The lady who answered my call was very kind, after collecting the information she sent me the directions and asked me to bring the bird in. Pedro as my son had named him is a lucky bird I should say. In ten minutes we were there and after taking a good look at him she promised to send me the reports after the initial investigations were done.

For a very young fledgling Pedro has done well. He survived both the injuries, the stray dogs in the area where he was found. He ate and drank well and seemed to be healthy after all that he had gone through. Now, he would go through a surgery to restore his wings.

Even though I wasn't very happy about my son bringing an owl home I was grateful to him for having rescued this amazing bird and letting him have a chance to live.

It kind of struck me that Pedro was absolutely gentle with me all the while I handled him. He never pecked me even once through that long process of cutting and removing the offending string. He let me pet him and ease him each time I fed him in the time he was with us.

I look back at the whole three days he was with us and see the amount of trust that this raptor predator was able to place in us.

We were sad to say bye to our new friend with whom we developed a strong bond, but we wish for the best. I hope and pray that he would be normal, grow up to be a strong guy and live a normal life.

Everyone should have a chance to life a full life, be it a bird or an insect. Once again this experience taught me the value of life. It is going to hard to kill another insect from now on LOL.

All I can say is I am so grateful for this experience.

All images used here are the sole property of @sofs-su