“sterling”
In loving remembrance of our one-eyed female, Sterling. We acquired her in December of 2013 from the Cypress Zoo in Louisiana. We had to remove her injured eye shortly after arriving. She actually died on the table during that surgery, but the vet was able to revive her. Within only a couple months of that surgery she laid a clutch of 7 eggs. She proceeded to “try” with every male for years following before finally realizing that she was the one that was infertile. In early 2020, she lost the rest of her eyesight and we thought we were going to lose her. We acquired another female, Luna, to prepare for when we did, as we knew her mate, Felix, wouldn’t handle her loss well. After adding Luna to the group, everyone perked up and Sterling lived another 3yrs. Sterling finally passed away on April 19th, 2023. Our petit little girl was a fighter til the end and although she was completely blind those last 3 years, she continued to find her food, bathe, and sing and have conversations with us every night. She is remembered but never forgotten!
“Luna”
We acquired Luna from Zoo-to-You in Paso Robles, CA in Spring of 2020. She had been hand-raised illegally by someone in Virginia and confiscated by Fish and Wildlife. She was 4 years old when we added her to our collection. She was a great addition to our group of eastern screech owls, they all loved her! Felix was actually seen kissing her within 2 hours of adding her to their enclosure. Unfortunately, on July 21st 2023, she was found dead at the bottom of the enclosure. After extensive searching and a necropsy we are fairly certain that she was bitten by a brown widow spider which caused acute liver failure and death. She will be missed!