On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien met a four-day-old baby barn owl - a fateful encounter that would turn into an astonishing 19-year saga. With nerve damage in one wing, the owlet had no hope of surviving on his own in the wild. O'Brien, then a young assistant in the owl laboratory at Caltech, was immediately smitten, promising to care for the helpless owlet and give him a permanent home. Wesley is the funny, poignant story of their dramatic two decades together.
As Wesley grew, O'Brien snapped photos of him at every stage, recording his life from a helpless ball of fuzz to a playful, clumsy adolescent to a gorgeous, gold-and-white, adult owl with a heart-shaped face and an outsize personality that belied his 18-inch stature. When O'Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal.
Wesley is a thoroughly engaging, heart-warming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, and, most important, love and loyalty.
| ISBN: | 9781849010580 |
| Publication date: | 16th July 2009 |
| Author: | Stacey OBrien |
| Publisher: | Constable an imprint of Little, Brown |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 230 pages |
| Genres: |
Biography: general Nature and the natural world: general interest |