Well, I hope it works out for yah! I know how horrid it is when an animal you've 'tamed' vanishes... I spent almost three months throwing dead mice to a barn owl, who eventually cottoned on that I wouldn't hurt her, and used to take meat from my hand. I can't describe the feeling of a bird of prey literally eating from your hand, she was such a magnificent creature. One day she wasn't in her normal spot. I searched the garden for hours but I couldn't find her. On leaving the house that afternoon, along with the usual dead pheasants and hares on the side of the road, was my owl.
What was worse, was she wasn't dead yet.
We took her to the vet but it wasn't enough. She died that night.
Three days after that, when I was walking in the forest, I heard a weak rasping noise emanating from a whole in a huge oak tree. I climbed up to the hole and there, right in front of me, where three tiny owlets, almost dead of starvation. They were obviously the chicks of my owl, and that was the reason she was on the road. She had resorted to picking at roadkill to feed her babies. I decided not to take them home, but instead feed them in their tree. After a few months, they were ready to fledge, and my owlets, the offspring of the owl I took months to train, flew off into the forest, and I never saw them again.
I'm glad they survived, but I wish they would've stayed around for a bit.
Thanks for reading this!
