So for those of you who don't know, I work at the International Owl Center and as such come in contact with a good number of owls.

This week, someone brought in a two-week-old barred owl. It was adorable. And it looked pretty strong, though tired.

It died that evening. We don't know why.

Then two days later, I got word that one of our education owls, Timber (also a barred owl) was put to sleep due to some lingering effects from his original head injury as a chick.

Today I was called to pick up an injured barred owl. I went and got it and it was in terrible shape; eye injury, wing injury, didn't use its left leg at all. The director said it probably won't last the night. If it does, it'll still be too weak to survive and I'll have to take it to someone in the area to be put to sleep.

Ugh.

And it looks like one of our other education birds (a great horned owl this time) might be having some neurological issues left over from when he was hit by a car.

Can someone pray to the gods of owls that we have no more owl crises for a month?!

Also, I need a hug. This injured one in a box in my house looks so much like Timber and I didn't get to say goodbye to him.