So in early January of last year I had one of the wildest and most beautiful experiences I could’ve asked for. Me and my friend were driving home from another town in the evening and my friend saw something on the side of the busy road in the snow bank that I completely missed. We couldn’t make it out clearly or stop in time the first time so they asked that we circle back around to investigate, and when we did we found this little guy super vulnerable on the side of the road, clearly stressed and exhausted.

(actual picture of said little guy in my friend’s arms as soon as we got back to the car)

They seemed to have a broken wing, possibly from a car collision. Neither of us knew much about owls at the time, nor had either of us had the honor of even seeing a snowy owl in person before, let alone holding one wrapped in our coat. I wouldn’t even know what to do with one in the middle of the day when a relevant facility might be open, let alone this hour of night. I didn’t even know for sure that they lived in our area. By some absolute miracle, my friend is friends with a really cool person in town who used to work at a raptor sanctuary somewhat near us (we’re in the middle of unpopulated nowhere so that was truly a one in a million chance) and still has their contact info. By another miracle, this person was awake, and we were able to get ahold of them to bring the owl to them so they could bring it to the sanctuary the next day.

the poor baby was so stressed and exhausted it was just letting us handle it without any trouble, which was convenient but heartbreaking.

Once we got it there and were able to confirm it would be safe and housed overnight, we took a little to assess the fella’s condition. Thankfully he started to perk up a little around this time, and that made it more clear where and how the wing was broken and how much pain he was in. But it also was a once in a lifetime gift to not only see but to touch and hold such a beautiful bird up close. They’re very soft, btw. By the time we got home it was very late but the whole detour was very worth it. I never got to confirm later how he turned out in the long term, but we knew he was in good hands so I trust he got all the care he could hope for.