A look back

This last spring we had this little owl in our barn, he was about 8 inches tall. Cute, isn't he? Our chicks were pretty good sized but we didn't want them to be the main course on the owl buffet. Dad went out to do the chores that night and runs back in the house to tell us to come out and see him before he flys off because, of course, he is going to be scared of us and want to make a quick escape. So we opened the front barn doors and he should have flown right out. Not. We chased this owl from one side of the barn to the other for at least an hour and he would not fly out the big doors. I think he was toying with us just to see us jumping up and down waving shovels and pitch forks that weren't even close to him. We finally told ourselves that he was too small to eat one of our chickens and retired for the night. The next day we went out, opened up the barn and he flew right out. He and his owl friends probably had a good laugh on us. He did leave our chickens alone thankfully.