The Owl in the Dog House

When we moved down here several years ago we ended up bringing an old, molded plastic dog house with us.  I’m not sure why since neither of our current dogs will get into it, but it was still in great shape and we thought that a future dog might use it.  So we hauled it down here, and my husband eventually stored it behind his shop building.  It isn’t snapped together, so the top sits on the dirt, facing towards the southeast, towards the south portion of his large garden, and the bottom is stored separately. 

Last summer, while my husband was working in his garden on a beautiful late August day, he felt like someone was staring at him.  We have 20 fairly un-obstructed acres, so he looked around, went back to work, looked around again, and went back to work.  The feeling kept growing.  He eventually looked up to the back of his shop, and finally saw the culprit.  A female barn owl was standing in the old dog house, looking out at him.  Needless to say, he called me on his cell phone and said to bring the camera, that I wouldn’t believe what was out there. 

A few minutes later I stood in awe, looking at that magnificent creature standing in the old dog house.  We took many pictures, slowly getting closer.  The owl didn’t seem to care – we didn’t know then that she was sick and/or poisoned, and had chosen the dog house as her last resting place. 

Throughout the day we checked on her.  She eventually settled onto her haunches and appeared to sleep.  The next morning I went out to see if she was still there and was saddened to find her dead, laying in front of the dog house.  Using gloves, we put her into a plastic bag and called animal control to see if they wanted to test her for West Nile Virus.  They said they weren’t interested, and didn’t want to take possession of her corpse.  So we buried her, next to the ashes of the dog who had loved the dog house.  It didn’t seem right that we should let the coyotes and ravens take her away in pieces when she had chosen to die here.  The worms and other subterranean creatures could have that privilege. 

I know many cultures have negative feelings about owls, but we didn’t feel anything negative about this experience at all – only awe and then sadness.  Her picture is below.