Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
Aug 2008 · Sold by Simon and Schuster
4.6star
34 reviews
Ebook
240
Pages
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About this ebook
This New York Times bestseller is a “sweet, quirky memoir” (USA TODAY) about a biologist and the baby barn owl that changed her life.
On Valentine’s Day 1985, biologist Stacey O’Brien adopted Wesley, a baby barn owl with an injured wing who could not have survived in the wild. Over the next nineteen years, O’Brien studied Wesley’s strange habits with both a tender heart and a scientist’s eye—and provided a mice-only diet that required her to buy the rodents in bulk. She watched him turn from a helpless fluff ball into an avid communicator with whom she developed a language all their own. Eventually he became a gorgeous, gold-and-white macho adult with a heart-shaped face who preened in the mirror and objected to visits by any other males to “his” house.
In this “honest, vivid, and revealing account” (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus), O’Brien also brings us inside Caltech’s prestigious research community where resident owls sometimes flew freely from office to office and eccentric, brilliant scientists were extraordinarily committed to studying and helping animals. As O’Brien gets close to Wesley, she makes astonishing discoveries about owl behavior, intelligence, and communication, coining the term “The Way of the Owl” to describe his noble behavior. When O’Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal.
Enhanced by wonderful photographs, Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heartwarming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, love, and loyalty.
On Valentine’s Day 1985, biologist Stacey O’Brien adopted Wesley, a baby barn owl with an injured wing who could not have survived in the wild. Over the next nineteen years, O’Brien studied Wesley’s strange habits with both a tender heart and a scientist’s eye—and provided a mice-only diet that required her to buy the rodents in bulk. She watched him turn from a helpless fluff ball into an avid communicator with whom she developed a language all their own. Eventually he became a gorgeous, gold-and-white macho adult with a heart-shaped face who preened in the mirror and objected to visits by any other males to “his” house.
In this “honest, vivid, and revealing account” (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus), O’Brien also brings us inside Caltech’s prestigious research community where resident owls sometimes flew freely from office to office and eccentric, brilliant scientists were extraordinarily committed to studying and helping animals. As O’Brien gets close to Wesley, she makes astonishing discoveries about owl behavior, intelligence, and communication, coining the term “The Way of the Owl” to describe his noble behavior. When O’Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal.
Enhanced by wonderful photographs, Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heartwarming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, love, and loyalty.
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Ratings and reviews
4.6
34 reviews
John Brown
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June 3, 2013
This book really touched my heart! Very good to read! :-)
Aviva Duggan
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May 21, 2020
I was surprised at how engrossed I'd become in her story! Her frankness and intunuative sence of kindness.
1 person found this review helpful
Robert Tetrault
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May 27, 2020
The older I get (70) the less I know.
About the author
Stacey O’Brien is trained as a biologist specializing in wild animal behavior. She graduated from Occidental College with a B.S. in Biology and continued her education at Caltech. She lives in southern California.
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