Animal Services Comes to the Aid of Injured Barred Owl

Animal Services Officer Leigh Stacy hoists a wire utility cart as Officer Caroline Smith prepares a carrier for Supervisor Crystal Reno to place an injured Barred Owl, Friday afternoon at a residence on Marlboro Avenue.

East Ridge Animal Services came the aid of an injured Barred Owl that was found in the backyard of a Marlboro Avenue residence, early Friday morning.

Jack Berry said he was awoken in the predawn hours on Friday by his dogs barking in the back yard of his Marlboro Avenue house. He went to investigate and discovered a Barred Owl flailing around desperately seeking sanctuary from the dogs.

Berry said he put the dogs in the house and came back outside and found the owl had sought refuge in a good sized hole his dogs had dug. Improvising, Berry placed a utility cart over the hole to keep the owl safe from crows that were beginning to show an interest in the injured bird.

After calling various wildlife and aviary experts and getting little help, Berry called East Ridge Animal Services. Within 10 minutes Crystal Reno, the supervisor of animal services, and her crew were on the scene.

With assistants lifting the utility cart up, Reno crouched in the hole, placed a small blanket over the distressed owl, and without struggle from the injured raptor, placed the bird into a carrier.

Reno said the bird, which appeared to have an injured wing, will be turned over to Happinest Wildlife for rehabilitation. She said she hopes the Barred Owl will make a full recovery.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.