January 2, 2000 ~ Birds of Prey in the Office
Yesterday I picked up the phone after lunch.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Melissa? This is Joel. Is Morgan there?" Joel is the Network Admin for the school, and also Morgan's boss.
"Yeah. Both him and Sloan are here. Are you in the lab?"
"Yeah."
"They just finished lunch; they will be heading over there in a few minutes. You want to talk to them?"
"Well... I have something in my office... that they... they really need to see."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and you may want to see it too. Are you heading over the hill?"
"Well I've got a paper I'm writing... What sort of something?"
"Well... Promise not to tell them. I want to surprise them."
"Okay."
"There's... an owl in my office."
"Really??"
"Yeah, I came in and there was bird shit all over and then I turned around and saw him staring at me..."
"Wow!"
"Yeah... Well, I'm kind of worried he'll peck my eyes out... but he's pretty cool. So have them hurry, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm gonna come too."
They pestered me the whole way there.
"Come on. Tell us. What does he want us to see?"
"I bet it's an animal."
"Yeah, like a Sugar Glider!"
"Can we bring Ali to see it?" (Ali is our pet rat).
"NO. Definitely not."
"Maybe it's something electronic."
"Maybe he got a new car."
"Maybe he got a tattoo."
"Maybe he got a cool scar."
"Yeah! Maybe Joel got his face removed!"
"Yeah, just flat and blank with a gaping hole for a mouth!"
"Yeah!"
Boys.
We got there and there was the cutest little screech owl perched in his office window.
The next dilemma became: "So... how are we going to get him out of here? It's New Years day. Everything is closed."
We were in luck. One of the Biology professors, Dawn Nelson, came walking by a few minutes later. She just happened to have some experience handling birds of prey.
"Does anyone have some leather gloves?"
Morgan held up his.
"Great, let me get some nets."
She managed to catch him quite gracefully, and then inspected him to make sure he hadn't injured himself. He was fine. Boy were those little owl-eyes WIDE. She assured us that owls never attack people, and that they actually like to get scratched a little behind their head. So we scratched him a little, and those feathers were soft and thick. She took him outside and we watched him fly up and perch on the roof, getting his bearings. It sure is cold out right now. I don't blame him for coming inside.
So yeah. Yesterday I touched an owl. Wonder what he thought of us.
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