Sunday Wol is nostalgic
Sunday, 23 May 2010 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freckles_and_doubtWe've been a scannerless house for a few years, and I finally caved and acquired the cheapest scanner I could find, the better to facilitate various French legal document-providing wossnames as well as my obsessive blogging pursuits. Ceremonially, I have scanned the first photo. Inevitably, it's a wol.
This is Fred Wol, a family pet for most of my high school career and into my university days. She was one of a pair of spotted eagle owl chicks who were dumped in my dad's lap when the parents were stoned to death by the locals (there are huge tribal superstitions among the Shona about owls, they're supposed to be evil). We christened the chicks Fat Fred and Slim Jim, more or less randomly on the basis of size difference - Fred was the female, which in birds of prey are usually larger. They both grew to adulthood and remained hopelessly imprinted on humans and more or less tame. They used to fly around the garden and come in for their supper at night; we moved house at least once with them hooting indignantly in boxes. Jim unfortunately flew into a phone line and killed himself, but Fred stuck around for years, finding a wild mate despite the imprinting, and raising several generations of chicks on the workbench in my dad's shed. I cherish very happy memories of her coming into the house in the mornings when she was broody, stomping down the passage with her rolling sailor gait, going "hoo hoo hoo" to herself, and trying to nest in my mother's cupboard in the remains of a straw hat. The photo shows her sitting on the old wooden chairs on the front patio. Spotted eagle owls are large, substantial-looking birds, and incredibly light to pick up. Fred would usually let you, although she would be rather talkative about it.
Owl chicks are incredibly ugly and very, very cute, with legs like fluffy tree trunks. This is a scan of a very old and faded black and white photo of Fred and Jim I found in my dad's stuff - they're on the shelf on the verandah where they used to live. The indignant look is more or less endemic.
I have been privileged to live with wols; an owl calling at night can still move me to tears. Also, I love my scanner.
This is Fred Wol, a family pet for most of my high school career and into my university days. She was one of a pair of spotted eagle owl chicks who were dumped in my dad's lap when the parents were stoned to death by the locals (there are huge tribal superstitions among the Shona about owls, they're supposed to be evil). We christened the chicks Fat Fred and Slim Jim, more or less randomly on the basis of size difference - Fred was the female, which in birds of prey are usually larger. They both grew to adulthood and remained hopelessly imprinted on humans and more or less tame. They used to fly around the garden and come in for their supper at night; we moved house at least once with them hooting indignantly in boxes. Jim unfortunately flew into a phone line and killed himself, but Fred stuck around for years, finding a wild mate despite the imprinting, and raising several generations of chicks on the workbench in my dad's shed. I cherish very happy memories of her coming into the house in the mornings when she was broody, stomping down the passage with her rolling sailor gait, going "hoo hoo hoo" to herself, and trying to nest in my mother's cupboard in the remains of a straw hat. The photo shows her sitting on the old wooden chairs on the front patio. Spotted eagle owls are large, substantial-looking birds, and incredibly light to pick up. Fred would usually let you, although she would be rather talkative about it.Owl chicks are incredibly ugly and very, very cute, with legs like fluffy tree trunks. This is a scan of a very old and faded black and white photo of Fred and Jim I found in my dad's stuff - they're on the shelf on the verandah where they used to live. The indignant look is more or less endemic.
I have been privileged to live with wols; an owl calling at night can still move me to tears. Also, I love my scanner.
