Great Horned Owl Update Day 3:

Checked the GHO first thing, doing very well this morning. Ate all six mice last night, which put him at nine for the day. He hunkered over, splayed out his wings and puffed up (if possible) even bigger than yesterday. Gave him four mice for the morning, placed strategically across the enclosure. Later in the morning, all his mice were gone when Nancy, our animal curator came by. We watched him for awhile. He has one quite distinguishing characteristic right now. His right ear tuft is mostly missing and so his left ear tuft appears just that much more prominent. Nancy named him Lefty. At the end of the day I placed five mice and a goose leg for his dinner and said goodnight. If he doesn't eat the goose (and hopefully some deer too) he'll eat us out of money in his hopefully-short hospital stay. As it turns out, he has no insurance. Post note: to those that were concerned, no harm would have come to the Lefty yesterday, even if he 'killed' me ;-)

Update from Bonnie, Education Department:

Came in today to find the GHO in fine spirits. Fluffing to over twice his actual size, he was hissing, clacking his beak and charging the cage door. Which was obviously a good thing, but checking his hydration and re-checking his wing mobility just became a whole new ball game. It's like going from T-ball to tackle football with the pros all in 24 hours. I did receive a small body piercing close to an area for which some people actually pay. Hydration was fantastic and the wing moved nicely in the socket. Because he was doing so well, we moved him outside and left him 3 mice for the morning. Josh and Ed (the veterans) came by to see how their waif was doing. We were all surprised to see him fly to an upper perch and then literally crawl up the wood slats. As we watched, he got his talon stuck and then in short time he just collapsed, hanging on by a toe. In all the years we've had rehab birds in that enclosure, this is the first time this has ever happened. I retrieved my casting gloves (my catching-a-raptor gloves) and as I entered the enclosure the guys asked if they needed to come in to protect me, I said, "No, but if he kills me, take him out." They puffed out their chests and said, "Can do." The bird, incidentally, freed himself before I ever actually entered the enclosure.

Great Horned Owl vs. Black Rat Snake
From Bonnie, Education Department:

Today, a couple of our veterans where on the service road and found a great horned owl being strangled by a black rat snake. They were joined by Brenda and between them, somehow managed to pry the snake free and save the owl from the grip of death (that's what I'm calling the snake). No animal was harmed in this death defying process. Yeah!

It turns out the GHO is so young he still has his baby feathers on the back of his head. (As young as 3 but not as old as 4 months). Upon his physical, he weighed 998 grams (2.2 lbs), had no broken bones, but one seriously drooping wing and had way too many flat flies sucking his blood. His mouth was pink and though it wasn't exactly moist, it wasn't stringy either. Melissa and I dusted him to de-vampire-bug him and administered fluid therapy both subcutaneously and orally. His was literally skin and bones (& feathers). Fear of his weakened state dictated not giving more food than his tummy could handle. We left him with 3 mice for the night and laid him down in his cage. At last bed-check, he was still unable to stand. I assumed it was simply the exhaustion, but the morning would tell.

By his emaciated state, and learning that he was seen during the day last week, trying to unsuccessfully carry a snake, he must have been trying to hunt the slow movers. His parents left him on his own before he'd learned to hunt well enough to survive. Poor little guy, top of his food chain, trying to get a meal and ended up almost killed by his prey. Seems like there's a lesson there about kids on the street...