I am a barred owl. I'm not a pet but this is a story about me and a few human friends...

I was out hunting one night when I saw a mouse skitter across a nearby road. I was focused intently on that mouse, so much so that I didn't notice an approaching car. I made my descent toward the mouse and just as I was about to grab it, the car clipped me on the wing. The driver stopped the car and jumped out to see what had happened. I was frightened and tried to fly away but I couldn't move my wing. I started to run. The man shrugged his shoulders, got back into the car and drove away.

The sun was rising and it was time for me to find a resting place safe from crows and other birds who would gang up on me and dive-bomb me if they saw me out in daylight. I crouched between a bush and an old abandoned barn and tried to sleep.

A few hours later, a car stopped near where I had been hit and a young man and woman (whose names, I later learned, were Robb and Katy) got out of the car and began walking around as if searching for something. They were wearing large leather gloves and I was frightened of them. I kept quiet and hoped they wouldn't find me.

Lucky for me they did. They put me in a box and took me to the Hudson Valley Raptor Center where they both worked, Robb as Assistant Director and Katy as a volunteer. As it turns out, the Hudson Valley Raptor Center is a place where injured birds of prey are taken to be cared for and set free.

There, they fixed my wing and fed and took care of me while I recovered. I saw Robb and Katy, my rescuers, there every day, in addition to Dona Tracy, the Director and founder of HVRC, and many other volunteers. I watched the way that Robb and Katy looked at each other and I was certain they were falling in love. One day, when Katy was cleaning my cage, I noticed a shiny round object wrapped around her finger.

Months went by and my wing soon healed. Robb and Dona removed the splint from my wing and moved me to a large cage where I had some room to fly and exercise my wing, which was atrophied from not using it for so long.

One day, Robb and Katy came into the flight cage seeming excessively cheerful. I sensed that something important was about to transpire. As Katy looked on, Robb caught me and placed me in a carrier. Then they took me to an apple orchard, the home of a retired judge. They spoke to the judge for a few minutes, then Robb took me out of the carrier. Katy and Robb both looked into my eyes and smiled. You're free now, they both said and Robb let me go. I flew to a nearby tree.

It was a warm spring evening, and the air was pungent with the scent of apple blossoms in full bloom. The sun was setting over a nearby lake, which I could see from my perch. I looked on as Robb and Katy turned to face each other. The judge stood before them with an opened book in his hands and began to speak. My rescuers were being married. As the ceremony ended, Robb and Katy both looked up at me for a moment. Then they turned and walked away hand in hand as I flew off to freedom.