Holding on for dear life
A teen trying to rescue an owl became trapped in her car after it latched onto her steering wheel and arm. But she says the bird “was really chill.”
The rescue went slightly awry. A Tucson teenager became trapped in her car after an injured great horned owl she took off the road “came back to life” as she drove.
But she said the bird “was really chill” as it latched on to her steering wheel and arm. It even posed for selfies and a Snapchat video as the teen awaited help.
Ryly Sawyer, 18, was driving home about 10 p.m. on May 7 on Oracle Road just north of Tucson after her shift at Quick Trip when she saw an owl sitting in the road.
Sawyer said it was dark and she didn’t have time to avoid hitting the owl with her vehicle.
“I kind of freaked out,” Sawyer said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. “So, I pulled over to the side of the road and I called my mom (and said) ‘I don’t know what to do, I just hit an owl. What do I do?’ ”
Sawyer said she picked up the seemingly lifeless owl and put it in her car. The dazed bird regained mobility and latched onto Sawyer’s steering wheel.
“I thought he was dead; he wasn’t moving,” Sawyer said. “I picked him up because I thought I had just killed an owl and as soon as I sat in my car, he came back to life.”
The owl was having trouble standing, so Sawyer reached out to stabilize it. The bird grabbed her shirtsleeve.
“I was really grateful that I didn’t actually kill it,” Sawyer said, “because I was really, really worried about killing it.”
Sawyer called her mother, who then called other people, including the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Tucson. As the department and Sawyer connected by phone, Sawyer kept calm.
“I kind of got a vibe off of the owl that I didn’t feel like I needed to worry about anything,” Sawyer said. “He was really chill about everything.”
Game and Fish suggested that she douse the owl with water. But the owl drank the water and kept its grip on the teen and steering wheel, said Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Tucson.
Sawyer tried for nearly an hour to free herself from the owl, taking the occasional selfie and Snapchat video when the bird wouldn’t let go.
The Game and Fish employee who spoke to Sawyer by phone warned her that if she didn’t get the bird off soon, the department would have to call 911.
“He just kind of said, ‘Well, we need to get this owl off of your arm, otherwise we’re going to have to probably call 911 and they’re probably going to have to kill it to get it off.’ And I was like, ‘We can’t do that.’ ”
Sawyer then tried moving her arm and steering wheel until the owl was almost upside down. That worked.
The bird lost its balance and released the wheel.
Sawyer exited the car, gently picked up the owl and placed it on the ground.
“Once he felt the ground, he let go of my arm,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer took a video of the bird and drove off. Game and Fish promised it would check in on the owl.
Sawyer’s mother said she saw the owl again the next day, in the same general area, Sawyer said.