Wesley The Owl

Boy did I luck out with this one. Wesley the Owl is the book I bought Saeed for Christmas. It appealed to me on multiple levels but I had to be sure that Saeed would like it, not me. Happily, we both loved the book.

The subtitle ~ The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl ~ hints that this isn't just another human-and-their-animal story but the account between a wild (under normal circumstances) animal and the human to which he attached himself. Owls are loners, have and keep one mate for life, and should never be kept as pets. Stacey was a biologist at CalTech when she was offered to adopt a four-day old owl chick. Normally abandoned owlets are raised with the intent of teaching them survival skills and releasing them when safe to do so. This chick had suffered permanent nerve damage in his wing which would prevent him from ever being to hunt sufficiently for survival, so Stacey was being asked to be the owl's mother for his entire life.

This account of Stacey's years with Wesley is peppered with bits of scientific information about owls specifically and biological mechanisms in general.The bulk (and the best!) of the story is, of course, the crazy and challenging things that happen to her (and Wesley) as they learn how to live together. Many times, after a particularly meaningful lesson, she would refer to the new knowledge as "The Way of the Owl." She writes splendidly and I laughed out loud every few pages. Often Wesley's antics were too adorable and I just wanted to kiss him through the pages. I wanted to bury my face in his feathers and smell that enticing owl odor she describes as "like maple syrup but not as sweet, something closer to butterscotch and a comfy pillow all in one." Awesome book.

See Wesley for yourself: