Tangled webs

I work one day a week at our local animal shelter. I have seen a lot of wacky things working there. Sometimes it is easy to forget that even the smallest gesture can make a difference. I had an experience this past Sunday that was a vivid reminder of that very idea.

It was Easter Sunday. We were not open to the public, so there was very minimal staff to attend to the daily needs of the animals. Namely, there was myself and two young teens. So, I was startled when I walked into a room and found the shelter director standing over something wrapped in a blue towel. He stopped me and asked for my help.

I asked him what he had in the towel and with silent precise movements he began to wrestle with the struggling towel, fetching out from the jumbled mess a pair of huge raptor feet with monstrous claws! I was stunned. I'm used to seeing scared feral cats in this sort of situation. I watched in awe as he peeled back the towel to reveal the biggest most gorgeous yellow eyes I have ever seen. I was face to face with a great horned owl. A big one at that! She had the unfortunate experience of failing during a hunt, and ended up wrapping herself quite tightly in a soccer net at a nearby park. Who knows how long she dangled there before someone saw her and called for a rescue. :(

Nonetheless, here she was. On the table in the medical room all tangled up in string, with her feet tightly gripped in a human's hands. I'll never forget those eyes. Piercing. Breathtaking. Terrified. Now, mind you I do have an over active imagination, but I could swear I heard her inside my head pleading, "help me, please. my babies.."

So that I did. My boss held her tight, and pulled the tightly would string from her body and I snipped away with the pliers. In no less than a minute, she was free from that mess. She never once tried to bite our careful hands. Instead she assisted in biting the random stands of string that were near her face and succeeded in breaking off a couple pieces, while we helped cut away the rest.

Still holding those massive feet, my boss gave her a once over. Her wings seemed fine when we stretched them out and she proved it when she started flapping with a force that stirred up a welcome refreshing breeze.

We wanted to give her some time to cool down and relax after her ordeal, so we set her up in a quiet area and waited a few hours before turning her lose in the same area she was found. Although I was not there for the release, I am told she was released at dusk, and flew without effort to the woods near the park where she was found.
...I hope you made it back to your babies, Momma owl!

What did I take from this experience?

I learned that sometimes in life, we can get ourselves so wrapped up in something (be it a project, relationship or perhaps a hundred things at once..) that no matter how hard we try, we are unable to right ourselves within the chaos. What tangled webs we weave... Sometimes we struggle so hard within our webs that we become unable to remove ourselves from the ties that bind and they begin to constrict, causing pain, panic and helplessness.

It is at a time like that where you need help. There is no sink or swim when you're stuck. Sometimes well all need someone to help lift us out of our tangled webs. Someone to take the ties that hold us down, and stretch them just long enough for you to cut them away yourself.

...Oh, and I also learned that I will never again go to work at the Humane Society without my camera. ;)