I take it back. The ornament looks more like a *Tawny* Owl. ;)
by Taulai Lepora
Which is actually what I was going to say in the first place, but figured no one on earth would know what one was, since most of us are Murricans, and we don't have them here.
I actually did have a pet owl when I was growing up: Tyl Oylenspiegel. My dad (a pediatrician by profession, but an animal rescuer in his heart) found a barely-fledged Great Horned Owl in the street one night when he was taking Opapa home. So of course he brought it home and we raised it, idiots that we were.
Poor Tyl had a broken wing, and because we were idiots, we didn't know to take her to a wildlife rehabilitator so she could be re-released. So my dad built her a big cage, and I took her out to exercise *every day*. That owl loved me. It was the weirdest thing. Almost as if she imprinted on me! She was the sweetest, nicest creature you can imagine (and now that I know more about them, I'm pretty sure "she" was a "he", since Tyl was small), which flies in the face of what every rehabber I've known since has told me about "hornies."
Maybe Tyl should have been a Hogwarts Owl. snif Good ol' Tyl...
[creeps off with three boxes of Kleenexes to reminisce about the dear creatures who have passed through her life, but since discarded their earthsuits to zip around amongst the Perseids.]