How I Watched The Superbowl

There was a Superbowl? Well, some may argue that the Superbowl in fact happened but as I watched the “game” two Sundays ago,

I noticed it was consumed with Seattle killing it and Denver egregiously letting the Seahawks win. I was really rooting for the Broncs, especially after seeing Richard Sherman’s raging rant but apparently it wasn’t their day to shine, with the Seahawks stealing the game, leaving a final score of 43-8.

So, in order to not be utterly bored at the Superbowl party I attended I tried to look for something to do. I didn’t want to hang out by the chips and salsa bar, which I’ve noticed is a common mode of distraction at parties, people just pounding down senseless calories. I also didn’t care for Bruno Mars so I wasn’t present during the halftime show. By that point I had found my distraction. Playing with an owl. This may sound weird, even impossible but it definitely made the game go a lot quicker and I met a new unique friend.

                  Now an owl doesn’t quite constitute a normal pet. And in fact, he wasn’t brought into the household as a pet, rather a hurt owlet, who fell from a tree and was rehabbed by the family hosting the party I was at. Taking care of birds was in fact no extraordinary task for them, since they own hawks and practice Falconry, which, according to Wikipedia, is the “hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey.” Since taking care of birds was an area the family has much knowledge about, they have welcomed “Spooky” into their family, and he is now approximately 9 months old. Of course I myself, know NOTHING about birds, except for the Family Guy tune “Bird is the Word.” But somehow I knew I wanted to hold this owl, and was fascinated by his regal markings, defined feathers, and stark golden eyes. I asked to hold him and was given a falconer’s glove, which is a leather glove meant to protect the hand and the forearm from a bird’s sharp talons. Spooky was tied to a perch and wore a bell around his foot. He had a leash attached to him so he could not fly away. Thinking that his bell was a cute little jingle bell, similar to what you’d find on a cat collar, I asked why it was attached to Spooky’s foot. Apparently the bell is used so that when you fly the birds, you can hear them from a far distance. I held my arm up to his feet and he climbed onto my glove. We had to detach him from his leash and attach him to a leash built into my glove, which I put snug under my thumb to hold him in place. And then we were done. Amazingly I was actually holding an owl. I held him for the remainder of the game, about two hours, and sat with him on the couch, walked him around the pool, even took him in the kitchen. I was amazed at his docile nature and was told that if he hadn’t been around humans so young that he would probably be very wild and hard to handle. I was shocked to learn that his diet consists of quail and mice. It was definitely intriguing to learn about a bird that most of us don’t ever encounter up close. At the end of the game, when the party was over, and everyone filing out I realized I had to give Spooky back to his owners. I was told that eventually they want to let him assimilate back into the wild, because he will probably be happier that way. But I told them if they ever needed an owl babysitter to let me know. I have already visited him once since and will forever be fascinated by horned owls.

Posted by: Eliana Sheriff