SPRINGBANK— It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and all the moving parts seemed to come together as one.
On May 27, Cochranite Olivia Criere was on her way back from a job interview near the Springbank area when she noticed a man near a fence with what she described as a giant ball of fluff. At first, she was taken back, wondering what the heck was going on, but after getting a closer look she quickly insisted for her brother to stop the car.
Criere realized the man by the fence was trying to help an owl who had become entangled on the fence.
"The poor thing had his wing stuck into a piece of barbed wire," said Criere. "We just so happened to have some of the weirdest and random tools in our car that helped out."
Criere said things couldn't have fallen into place any more perfect as the man had a knife to set free the owl, herself and brother had a towel in their vehicle to wrap up the bird and a passerby who stopped to lend a hand just so happened to have a kennel in her vehicle to transport the troubled animal to the Cochrane Ecological Institute.
"It was so funny because we had a towel and a stick for the owl to grab onto with his talons and then the gentlemen had a knife to cut the barbed wire and then the woman had a kennel. It was just four people with one little thing each that just managed to make one complete save. We managed to pull the barbed wire out of this beautiful barn owl's wing and wrap him up in the towel. He's clicking his beak at us, but he wasn't trying to get away, I think he knew we were helping him, and we tucked him inside this kennel in this woman's car and she took him off to the rehab centre here in Cochrane."
Criere has since been in touch with the Ecological Institute who informed her that the Owl has a sprained right-wing, but will be making a full recovery.
"He is being rehabilitated and he will be released," she said.
It is said that there are no random meetings in our lives and that everyone we touch or touches us has been put in our path for a reason. The briefest encounter can open a door. Perhaps this is the universes way of telling Criere that she will be getting that job with animals, after all.
"It just seemed so perfect. I had never seen an owl in person besides going to the Calgary Zoo, and he was just beautiful, magnificent and I was so glad I could have been there to help him."
