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OMG, that was awesome!
I just went out to run the dogs around in the yard -- and also the cat, who likes taking walks with us, for reasons known only to him. It's dusk, and I was out at the edge of the yard when a gigantic bird swooped over my head and landed in the tree above me. I thought it was a raven, though they don't normally fly around so late, because it was about that size and there's almost nothing else flying around the woods that's so big. But when I got a good look at its silhouette in the tree, it was a great horned owl.
I know we have quite a few of them, but I've only seen one in the wild once before, and that was on a nature walk that was specifically showing us an owl's nest, which hardly seems to count. *g* But this was much, much closer -- probably only twenty feet away from me. And they move like a cat! It's so creepy! The graceful, sinuous movement of their neck and head is just like a cat's body language, especially with the flat face and the ears.
The cat, in fact, was what the owl was looking at, with a speculative and hungry sort of air. Discretion is the better part of small pet ownership, and I scooped him up to make sure that he didn't end up an owl-kebob. Cat in hand, I strolled up underneath the owl's tree to get a better look at it, until it got fed up with that and flew away. I wandered after it for a little while (still carrying the cat, since I didn't dare put him down) and got a few more good looks at it on top of a pile of gravel in the gravel pit.
The cat was most put out by all of this. When I put him down, he showed his gratitude by flinging his arms around my leg and biting me on the shin. ("Cat sovereignty - violated! You bastard!") Decided it would be a good idea to take him inside for the night ...
I know we have quite a few of them, but I've only seen one in the wild once before, and that was on a nature walk that was specifically showing us an owl's nest, which hardly seems to count. *g* But this was much, much closer -- probably only twenty feet away from me. And they move like a cat! It's so creepy! The graceful, sinuous movement of their neck and head is just like a cat's body language, especially with the flat face and the ears.
The cat, in fact, was what the owl was looking at, with a speculative and hungry sort of air. Discretion is the better part of small pet ownership, and I scooped him up to make sure that he didn't end up an owl-kebob. Cat in hand, I strolled up underneath the owl's tree to get a better look at it, until it got fed up with that and flew away. I wandered after it for a little while (still carrying the cat, since I didn't dare put him down) and got a few more good looks at it on top of a pile of gravel in the gravel pit.
The cat was most put out by all of this. When I put him down, he showed his gratitude by flinging his arms around my leg and biting me on the shin. ("Cat sovereignty - violated! You bastard!") Decided it would be a good idea to take him inside for the night ...