CW: Debbie Downer
On our morning walk, I saw something that at first appeared to be a bit of a tree branch in the road, before a quarter-mile mark. A few more steps and I realized it’s a bird, a really big one. I thought it maybe a hawk, but had a sinking feeling in my gut. A couple of more steps confirmed that feeling: a big, gorgeous barred owl. It wasn’t squished either, so I imagine he collided with a passing vehicle. The speed limit on my road is fairly slow and people do fly, despite knowing there are young children in several houses and elderly in many. But a collision at any speed with a farm or other work truck would probably yield the same result. It made me a bit sad, this was one of my regular visitors that caused me to worry about my fur babies and call them close, if we were outside together and I heard the call. Still, we all managed to co-exist peacefully for almost ten years, so of course I feel sorry for my oft-invisible friend.
It is always a shame to see something happen to our outdoor friends. Flying head-first and traffic are a poor combo. I always see warning shared not to toss food waste out to the roadside, as that brings rodents the owls will try to hunt, putting them in the path of cars.
Just the road itself provides a nice area for observation and the low swooping flight a lot of owls use, making them an attractive hazard.
We had to say goodbye to a few nice animals this week. My raven buddy who we’ve had for a few months was still not flying, so we took him somewhere to get imaging done. They didn’t know if it was disease from an old injury or some type of cancer or other degenerative disease, but instead of his wing bones growing back stronger, they were progressively deteriorating, so we had to say goodbye to him.
We also had a cute squirrel with malocclusion, I think it was. Rodent teeth continue growing their whole lives, as they chew on hard things all the time. With malocclusion, they teeth don’t get worn down as they should and can cause injuries, hurt the mouth or jaw, cause tooth decay, and various other issues.
This link the pic here came from says squirrel teeth can grow 6 inches a year! At that rate, it wouldn’t take long of being unattended for it to start suffering, so we had to give that guy an early sendoff as well. It’s a situation that can be taken care of, but not in a wild animal.
I’m really sorry for your losses, my friend. We do what we can.
It probably was traceable to food waste tbh. People here throw whole bags of trash out of car windows. :-/
The raven was a sad one, since it had been here quite a while and I fed it regularly, and as the only one we had, there wasn’t any mixing it up with countless others. He had been close to release early on, but his wing went bad again after getting fixed originally. He never seemed very happy, and we weren’t sure if it was just because it was alone or what, but it turned out it was just never going to get better.
It’s probably better we found out before it was released and its wing would have gone bad shortly after. He got to live a few extra months and meet a peaceful end as opposed to dying from exposure or being eaten. I looked forward to seeing it every week though, plus with its extensive diet, it was fun to cook for.
For the squirrel, I still don’t want to see things happen to them, but as tasty animals, we still have about 100-200 more of them right now! They know how to make babies for sure!
We never like to see any animal not make it out of our care, but if it would never make it on its own, we are at least able to give them a calm and loving end.
🫂 It’s really good you can keep a balanced perspective. Even though we feel sad sometimes, letting go is often the best outcome for them.
A while ago (several years) at a funeral, I realized we mourn for our losses, in what is a natural, inevitable outcome, if later rather than sooner. Those we mourn have no more troubles. It seems a bit cold and callous, but when we take a step back, it is the truth. Maybe they could have been around longer – but I don’t want any creature’s prolonged, unnecessary suffering for my personal emotional comfort, anymore.
We’ve got a very specific job, and it’s to get animals back to the wild. We’re a waypoint for animals, not a destination. We only have so much capacity, time, and resources and after a certain point, having permanent residents detracts from our ability to meet that responsibility. We give every animal our best efforts and sometimes that is just making them comfortable one last time. Mercy is something real in a harsh world.
