I'd like you to meet me new friend. This is Mr. Owl. I saved him today on my ride. Just another day in the life of vegetarian, animal-lover, why god put me on this earth (to save animals) Marni.
I was looking forward to this morning as my last training session to prep for the sprint triathlon on sat. I headed out at 6:45am (Karel was still in bed) for a 30 mile ride and then a 3 mile run. I took seduza out since she was feeling neglected and she was fast :)
As I was riding along mandarin, I spotted something furry by a mailbox. While my eyes are always on the road I seem to notice animals like I have eyes all over my head. I rode by Mr. Owl and then quickly turned around. Careful to not get close to him for fear that he would attack me, I started talking to him. Yes, I do this a lot to animals. Still haven't had any animal/creature talk back to me (except for smudla who meows when I ask her if she is hungry..which is all the time) but I am always the first to start a conversation with an animal. I asked Mr. Owl if he was ok and suprisingly he chomped his mouth/beak at me. His right eye was kinda closed and it looked like he was hurt. I kept asking Mr. Owl if he was hurt but no reply. I snapped a few pics with my camera phone and decided I would let him be....until I returned. I figured there was nothing I could do at that moment but I needed to call someone. I rode for 5 more miles and decided to turn back. I thought about who I would call. 911 probably wouldn't be the right phone call and I didn't want to ride 10 more miles home just to look up numbers. I dailed 411 in my phone and got connected to the human society in Jacksonville. Well, at 8am they were closed so I called the animal emergency line. I figured an injured owl was absolutely an emergency.
Mr. Owl was obviously injured because he started to shut his eyes and when I would get close to him to swat away the mosquitos (there were bugs all over his "droppings", probably from his injury) he stopped snapping at me. So, I waited for an hour and 15 min until I saw Karel riding by. I told him the situation and he was suprised I didn't name Mr. Owl. At that point I just thought he was a beautiful owl but when karel came by I started calling him Mr. Owl (more mature I think :)
Another lady (cyclist) had driven to the scene with her two young boys and she also called the human society, which no one answered.
I needed to get home since it was already 9:15 so the other lady stayed with Mr. Owl. I was sure to get her number so that I could find out what happened to Mr. Owl.
An hour later I heard from the lady and Mr. Owl probably has a broken wing. Who knows what happened to him but since it is his bedtime now, he is probably very tired, sore and stressed. I have a reference number to the clinic that is going to try to take care of him, so I will continue to check up on my new friend Mr. owl.
So, duty called for me to save an animal and the workout this morning was 27 miles on my bike in 3 hours :) No run this morning but no worries.
I think the beauty of life is just being spontaneous. Sometimes you have a plan and are determined to accomplish many goals in that plan. But, when scenarios change you must way the pros and cons and ultimately you must be happy with your decision. I will take saving an animal over training anyday :)