“Felix”
In loving rememberence of our one-eyed male eastern screech owl, Felix. Although he has been retired from coming to events and shows for a few years now, our 14-yr old male has been active in the enclosure with his buddies. Moving around the entire cage, snuggling with his cage-mates at various points, and of course (during the hot days) enjoying getting soaked sitting under the misters.
He would often stay under the misters until he looked like a drowned rat, far beyond the point where his buddies had left for drier ground.🤣
There have been many points throughout the 12 years that we have cared for him where we thought we may lose him. From shortly after acquiring them, when recovering from their eye surgery, when his skin just did not want to hold a suture and he simply did not want to eat because of the infection that was brewing, to his depression-based anorexia after losing Siggy (our first red phase eastern screech, whom he connected and snuggled with stronger than any other before and since). 💞 I have never seen any animal with such a strong will to fight and perseverance to live.
Unfortunately, everything has to end some time. Last month he lost what was left of his eyesight and, while Sterling went on for another 3 years after losing hers and was able to still utilize the entire cage and bathe and sing up until the very end, Felix’s journey was not quite the same. He made his way down to the ground near the door (where they all try to go when something is wrong, but this is also where Siggy passed…on his way to the door). He pretty much stayed on the ground in this area of just a couple feet and was either on the ground or in our floor-box (which was Siggy’s box). I truly believe this was his way of telling us he was ready to go and join his buddy Siggy and his former mates Sterling and Luna. So, on Thursday, July 24th, 2025 we said goodbye to Felix as he passed on to join his buddies.💞🌈
“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!