It’s been a while since my last post in this Dear Owl series, but I’m hoping you’ll agree that it was worth the wait.
Dear Owl,
Yeah, I know! It’s been ages since my last letter! I’m really sorry. I’ve just been kinda preoccupied, what with my dying from ALS and all.
But listen, I’m super excited to finally be writing to you, especially after two relatively recent incidents.
First up, I Saw You!
I mentioned in the first letter I sent you that, though I enjoy and am comforted by hearing your Hoo Hoo Hoo-Hoo call in the evening on a regular basis, I was a little bummed that I hadn’t seen you except for that first time, despite my nearly daily ritual of gazing out at the trees and scanning in hopes of spotting you.
Well, that all changed a few weeks ago.
I was sitting out on our deck with a couple of friends, enjoying a gorgeous, sunny day, ironically I wasn’t actually looking for you when, all of a sudden, in my peripheral vision, emerging from the tree line, I spotted a flying object that was considerably larger than the birds — sparrows, chickadees, towhees, finches, jays, etc. — I normally see flitting about our property.
It was you!
And, though I could not snap a photo myself, you looked exactly like the owl in this amazing action shot, taken by my friend Fred:
I gotta hand it to you, neighbor. You are an impressive, very attractive creature, and it was thrilling to see you in flight.
Next, I met your cousins!
I was visiting my dear friends, Tom & Nicole, at their lovely home, enjoying what I call a Bonus Day — specifically consisting of sunny, warm, summer-like weather at a time, in early autumn, when such days become fewer and farther between.
We were taking in the gorgeous view of Lake Whatcom from their comfy patio, when we were treated to quite the show, as if arranged for us by our hosts for our evening’s entertainment. The sunset was spectacular, and a perfect crescent moon rose over a stand of tall trees. Then, a series of loud screeches from some kind of bird caught our attention, and we began searching the sky and the trees for their source.
Within seconds, we observed two large birds flying and landing in the upper branches of the trees in the foreground of our lake view, they seemed to look up at and admire the moon just as we had, they continued their screeching, and Tom managed to capture this image of the scene, featuring the two guest stars:
After some sleuthing on the interwebs, thrown off at first by the screeching call more commonly associated with another Western Washington State resident, the Screech Owl, I determined that these were your Great Horned Owl cousins, based on their appearing much larger than Screech Owls, and given that, though Great Horned Owls are mostly known for their hooting call, they do sometimes screech.
What else can I say? You owls are so freaking cool!
Until next time…
Owl, my friend, I sincerely hope there will be a next time, but I need to be honest, my body is giving out on me, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to write to you again. I’m still planning on posting more on my blog, The Owl Journal, at least a few more installments in my Howard’s Divine Comedy series, and one more addition to Excerpts From The Abandoned Novel series.
But, who knows? Maybe “next time” will be a different form of communication altogether. Maybe, just maybe, once I shed the skin of my corporeal form, once I’m a disembodied consciousness, a being of energy uploaded to the network of all things, perhaps I’ll be able to speak Owlese, and we can really get to know each other!
So yeah, until then, lovely to see you recently, my warmest regards,
Howard
I, Too, Heard The Owl 