Dear Ray Zee: Bogie the Owl Needs Your Help

[Boris]

Cute Little One Eyed Owl (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/12185440.htm) and he needs a plane ride from California to Fairbanks. How can you say no? Please Ray, it's for the owls.

[JAA]

The link doesnt work unless you have a membership....Maybe copy and paste the text of the article in another post.

Just FYI.

- Jags

[Boris]

Who will take Bogie the one-eyed owl from Morgan Hill to Alaska? Who will his benefactor be?

``Who?'' asks Bogie the one-eyed owl.

Well, OK. so Bogie does not actually say ``Who.'' A young Western screech owl -- Otus kennicotti -- he has not hooted at all. Sue Howell, head of a wildlife rehabilitation center, is the one trying to find out who.

``We've been trying to come up with solutions'' on how to get the rehabilitating owl to a new life at a wild bird center in Fairbanks, Howell said. If only there were a willing rich person with a private plane. ``Maybe someone knows Larry Ellison?''

Howell -- executive director of the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center in Morgan Hill -- hates the idea of sending the perpetually winking Bogie on a commercial or cargo flight all the way to Fairbanks. Especially because there are no direct flights from the Bay Area.

Bogie is too young, too light (under five ounces) and too small (7 inches tall) to withstand such a journey, Howell fears. Normally when she relocates a rescued animal, Howell or someone on the staff drives it. But it's 2,200 miles to Fairbanks.

Bogie was found in Gilroy in late May lying in Fred Eder's driveway. The bird was moving a little but not getting very far. When the situation didn't change, Eder looked for help and found Howell, who says her facility takes in hundreds of orphaned and injured birds every year.

Howell has a wide variety of rescued creatures at her center in Morgan Hill. She figured Bogie had recently left the nest when he was hit by a car. A local veterinarian, Laura Bellinghausen, treated the owl but couldn't save its right eye.

Bogie, named in honor of '40s film star Humphrey Bogart, has healed well, Bellinghausen said. ``He's great. You take him out and he's all angry, clacking his beak at you, and acting like he's this huge thing.''

But he'll never reach full owl strength, and she and Howell agreed the bird would not fare well in the wild. So Howell searched around.

The only place interested in a short one-eyed owl was the Sheep Creek Wild Bird Center in Fairbanks, where Lorrie Hawkins uses raptors like Bogie for educational programs.

``Owls are by far the most popular'' in her presentations, Hawkins said Wednesday. ``Owls are just magical. People love them.''

His clacking and bluffing aside, Bogie is a well-behaved owl. He can perch quietly on a gloved finger, or a branch in the kennel that serves as his temporary home, right next to Blossom the opossum. He doesn't eat much -- ``a mouse a night,'' Howell said.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has approved the relocation. Now all that's needed is someone with a corporate or private plane planning a trip to Fairbanks.

Even if someone is found, the relocation could be tricky, Howell said. Bogie is tiny and must be handled with care.

She said a volunteer from the center would be happy to chaperon, if that were feasible.