I hope you will
forgive me for a somewhat morbid blog but I thought it only fair I shared with
you the harder side of my job and also tried to pay homage to my own little
legend.
Today has seen me
have to say goodbye to a long serving member of our team, Barney, Barney has
been with us since the start of Northside Falconry and has been a major asset
to our team performing in displays throughout the country, entertaining
countless children at school visits and being our first class wedding ring
deliverer at countless couples big days.
She had been
suffering from an impacted preen gland thus making it impossible for her to
preen and keep herself in good feather and also rendering her more and more
unwell and causing her to start pulling her feathers.
I shall be
utterly lost without her and even whilst writing this am barely able to see
through my tears, for a barn owl she could be a tenacious little bugger with
the attitude of a golden eagle but she was the bird I could NEARLY always rely
on, I say nearly because there has been the odd time she has given me a run for
my money – namely the time she decided to go and sit on top of a moving fair
ride at Selby Game fair and refused to come down until they turned the lights
on! Or the time she went silently down the aisle at a wedding at the Morritt
Arms where no one had been informed that an owl was delivering the rings only
to frighten the mother in law so much she shouted F*****G Hell at the top of
her lungs or last but not least the time she was posing superbly for wedding
photos with the bride and groom only to decide she had had enough and started
to eat the button hole J.
We will never even attempt to
fill her talons but Nan has a tough job ahead of her to even come close to the
gap Barney has left, she has been laid to rest under her favourite photography
prop and I intend to plant some flowers for her in due course.
RIP my little tinker X
Tori
