This is Greeper the owl. He was named by my sisters because that is the sound that they decided that he made. Greeper came into our home when he fell out of a tree “in the woods across the road” as an owlet. I was probably about seven years old at the time, which would have meant that my sisters were still at home in high-school.
Greeper tried to feed on the red and green spots on our kitchen-dining room linoleum floor, and often left his own contributions to the linoleum floor. We found that he enjoyed beef livers, and had to get a fresh supply of those from the store every week in addition to what we kept in the old freezer.
We found that if you focused on Greeper’s eyes, while twisting his body around 360 degrees, that he would stay focused on your face until he snapped his head around lightning fast and stayed focused on your face. The effect was that it appeared like you could just keep twisting his body around and his head just floated above it in one place!
Eventually Greeper could fly and rejoined his sibling and parents. He would still fly down to our porch and grab a meal of beef liver while mom and dad stayed up in the old elm trees chiding him on his poor choice of friends.
After the summer Greeper eventually returned to the woods to do the job of all Great Horned Owls – kill rodents and piss off a lot of crows.
It’s not a good idea to involve yourself with young animal like this. His parents would have taken care of Greeper despite his fall from the nest. Sure a cat, a weasel or fox could have found him but mom and dad do have some good defenses against those predators. I am glad that I had this farm kid learning experience but for the safety of the animal I can’t recommend it to others.
Toad Aweigh 