It wasn’t until Harry Potter came out that I realized how adorable owls are! I never had a problem with the little fur ball, but I guess I had never paid much attention to just how fluffy and precious they are! Owls have such a charm. It’s their round bodies with big eyes and little cooing sounds that make them adorable! Plus, they have the weirdest neck movements! They can turn their heads all the way around, how bizarre is that?
This is Oakley, a tiny, baby Great Horned Owl who was orphaned after getting lost in a tornado. He’s in good hands though. He was brought to the Eagle Valley Raptor Center in Kansas, USA, a bird rescue and rehabilitation center. Oakley the itty bitty owl is having a great time so far, too!
Oakley is so young and little that his caretaker hasn’t put him with the older owls yet. He has to wait a few more weeks before he can get put in with the other birds just like him. Although its important for Oakley to grow up surrounded by his kind, the timing (and his size and maturity!) has to be just right. He’ll be ready soon enough.
Until then, his caretaker has found an alternative solution. It’s not perfect, but it seems to be working and it’s only for a short while longer. Plus, Oakley seems ok about all of it. Actually, he seems pretty darn content with it.
The video opens to teeny Oakley standing beside another owl – a toy owl that mechanically plays, sings, and dances the fun Halloween favourite, “Monster Mash.” He starts his jig when the button on his pumpkin is pushed. Now, Oakley is fuzzy and beige, with a cute pointy beak and little hunched back, but his friend has googly, wonky eyes and stringy fur. Oakley still accepts him for who he is! The two are an unlikely pair but Oakley has found comfort and safety spending his time with the singing toy.
“They are pretty wild, and this way he will finish growing up with his own kind. So, for now, while he is still pretty young, all he gets is a stuffed owl…We hope to release him in about six weeks,” says his keeper. It wasn’t too much longer after this video was recorded that Oakley got to move in with three older juveniles. Happy Halloween indeed!
Click on the video below to watch Oakley have a hoot with his new buddy.
