Here in the “wilderness” I have been randomly selected to participate in Bird Training, which means that I have the opportunity to learn more about Ornithology and I get to do cool things like carry around raptures, like a Red Tailed Hawk and a few owls, feed them dead mice, and eventually I’ll have the skills to teach and present to children all this wealth of knowledge I gain.
At 7:50 am, I pulled my Rock Port hiking shoe laces as tight as I could bare, grabbed my vegan snacks (yep, I’m vegan now) of fresh carrots and celery, and headed out the back door to our trail that leads to the Bird houses. Excited and tempted to sing the Smurf song, I nearly skipped all the way to my new training grounds.
Ready to go, another colleague and I arrived almost simultaneously. There was already a trained staff member cleaning the mews that house the birds. When I walked into the lab room that temporarily cages birds during classes, there was a scent that I will never forget. It didn’t quite repel me as much as the Turkey Vulture smells. Turkey vultures have a habit of vomiting on themselves and everything around them to cool down. Thankfully we don’t house vultures of any kind, because I would have to turn down bird training because the smell will literally make me sick.
Yuk. Now I’m getting nauseas writing about it
Eager to train us, we too were eager to learn and get started. I carefully watched and listen to every direction our trainer provided on how to properly tie and position the birds on our leather gloves, using jesses and a fake stuffed owl. After spending about a half hour practicing the proper technique, we dropped our stuffed friend on the table and headed to the mews.
Because it was my first day, we were told to handle the one of the little owls first. The owl that destiny chose for me to meet is blinded in his right eye because he was hit by a truck on the highway. Yeah, this owl is a survivor and that’s why I was so happy to have him with me during my first bird carrying experience.
Slightly grumpy, he looked at me through his one eye and sized me up.
“Who are you,” said his expression.
I moved slowly and calmly and perched my figures up as the trainer instructed.
“Hello, I’m Prisci.” I calmly introduced myself. “Nice to meet you.”
Carefully, I locked him off in my glove and walked around our presentation space comfortably holding him on my pointer fingers.
He was definitely not comfortable.
“I don’t know you lady. And besides, I’m grumpy. Why did you have to wake me up?!” I heard him say this as he tried his best to peck my fingers off through the thick leather clove. It was actually kind of cute. Look at us, already having a love hate relationship…Ha.
Eventually, my little friend calmed down and he let me touch his feathers. From what I’m told, birds don’t like to be touched… it messes up their feathers… but he let me.
I wouldn’t doubt if he could sense our connection.
Just like my little owl friend, I’ve been through a hell of a lot. I grew up in a dramatic scenario with my parents’ separation, by middle school my family had to make a drastic decision to move overseas, leaving family and peers behind. Let’s see I moved again … and again … And I was pretty much the new girl in school throughout middle and high school. In my naïve days, I was kidnapped by someone who I later found out was a FELON, I’ve been sexually offended , I’ve been abandoned by “love ones,” I was tricked by people who preyed on my musical talents and dreams, lied to and stolen from by a mentor.
Geese.. now that I think about it, I mind as well sum it all up and say that I was hit by a truck too because I was VERY suicidal. Thankfully, I survived it all and after I was centered and I was rescued by love, just like my little owl friend. We’ve both accepted our calling to use our bruises and scars to inspire and educate others.
So that’s what I do. I mean, that’s what WE, survivors, do.
And all though my owl friend and I may have had a rough start, with each other and a rough start in life, our purposes in this world are quite similar.
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