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Book Review: Wesley the Owl by Amy Hopkins
Wesley the Owl, subtitled, "The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl" is an absolutely delightful read. On Valentine's Day, 1985, the author, biologist Stacey O'Brien, met a four-day -old baby barn owl with nerve damage in his wing. O'Brien was an assistant in an owl laboratory at Caltech, and was recruited to give Wesley a permanent home. If you substituted the word "parrot" for "owl", this book would look very familiar! Wesley played with toys, loved head scritches and groomed like a parrot. He freaked out if O'Brien changed her hairdo and to her chagrin, even tried to mate with her arm.But her embarrassment was nothing compared with her reaction when she realized that Wesley considered feeding mice to his mate an essential part of lovemaking! She found this out one night when he dropped a mouse into her open mouth while she was asleep. Yuck!! You can read her hilarious attempts to pretend to eat the proffered mice so as not to offend Wesley. And you thought regurgitation was bad!
As a biologist, O'Brien entertains us with the difference between "scat", "poop" and "sh*t", from a scientific perspective, of course. "Scat" is the term used when scientists are studying animals and using fecal matter to learn about health or diet. "Poop" is both a noun and a verb and is a more general term for the subject. When the bird has pooped on us, our clothing or something valuable, the word "sh*t" applies. O'Brien sums this up to say, "so if it's on the ground, it's poop. If it's under the microscope, it's scat. If it's running down your neck, it's sh*t." Bet you didn't know that.
You can read about Wesley's unusual obsession with bathing in "Owls Are Not Waterbirds". Other chapters include "Barn Owl Toddler: Love Me, Love My Owl", "Attack Kitten on Wings", "Love to Eat Them Mouses", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and many others. This beautiful book has many photos of Wesley in various stages of his life and is, most of all, a love story about how an owl changed a woman's life forever.
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For further insight, watch this short video of O'Brien and Wesley to see them snuggling and learn about his interesting method of waking her up in the morning:
Additionally, here's a longer author interview about the making of the book, which became a New York Times Bestseller:
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