I am not sure what happened to the blog. I noticed that most of the pictures either did not send or show for a while. There was some type of a glitch in the Blog program. It appears to have been corrected, at least on my computer. Most of the pictures were blotted out for a while.
Jessie, after I released her, spent about 6 days somewhere else, then came back to her mews. She spent 6 days there, never leaving and I thought that she had settled in, and things would be OK.
Then I was wakened in the middle of the night by a Horned Owl hooting. As most of you know the walls to my house are of native stone and about 18 inches thick, so it had to be close. I got up and went out to see what was going on, but could find nothing. I did not see or hear the Owl again. Jessie normally slept on an inside perch, so it was not strange that she was not visible. Horned Owls are a serious threat to Hawks and Falcons, and most consider it to be their duty to eliminate all of the day shift if and when they can. The day shift knows this and are very afraid of Horned Owls.
When I arose the next morning, Jessie was gone. I kept watch for the next 8 days looking for her to return. She did not. Last Friday I received a call from the Ontario, (Oregon) Fish and Wildlife, that a lady in Rome had found her body. She had been staying at their ranch just outside of Rome.
As you might imagine I have been doing a lot of thinking about the whole thing and doing a lot of self flagellation as well. My conclusions ( guesses) follows.
I think that I mentioned that the last time I flew her for exercise, she exhibited some bizarre behavior, that I attributed to something like dementia in humans, as well as an inability to regain muscle strength. She seemed to be unable to climb to any height over about 150 feet and showed a lot of frustration about it. That was three years ago. Her level flight and that close to the ground did not seem any different from normal.
I am guessing that the Owl scared her badly enough that she fled the next morning as soon as it got light enough to do so. She flew about 10 air miles from the house to the ranch that I mentioned. Perhaps she did not know how to get back home because of her suspected? likely? dementia, or that she no longer felt safe there. Who knows.
It has taken this long for me to come to grips with her loss, and my feelings of guilt. This is not Disney land and as my mother used to quote " If wishes where horses, we would all never have to walk again".
I know a lot of you felt as though releasing her was a noble idea, but to me it feels like a betrayal of trust.
