THANKS TO A SOFT MOUTH

The tale of a Chesapeake retriever and a tawny owl

One of the rewards of writing this column is receiving emails from readers. I particularly enjoyed the following from David Hannam, a retired vet who now lives in Spain. David was responding to a piece I wrote on soft-mouthed gundogs. “Many years ago, Jessica the Chesapeake came trotting back from the paddock and presented me with a soggy, somewhat bewildered tawny owl chick that had fallen out of its nest.

“We didn’t know what to do with him. We were advised to put him back at the bottom of the tree for his parents to look after him. Well, that didn’t work. A few hours later, we found him covered in fly eggs and dehydrated. So he went into intensive care in a redundant budgie cage and we reared him. Day-old chicks and raw rabbit worked a treat. We called him Toc Toc as that was what he said when hungry.

“He was with us for about five years. He found a mate. His first brood of chicks failed, but his second was a success. He had five owlets all over the village.

“We lived in a small village of about 20 houses and everybody knew Toc Toc and looked out for him.

“One day, he was there as usual in his favourite oak tree, welcoming me home from work. The next day he was missing and I never saw him again. It was such a huge wrench.”

A happy story with a poignant ending, thanks to a soft-mouthed retriever and a kindly vet.

David added: “At one time, he was a poorly owl, only managing a pathetic hoot. I took him to a friend who is an avian specialist. We decided he had either owl herpes or a bacterial infection. I gave him antibiotics and he recovered.”

David never used a glove when handling the owl as Toc Toc was always gentle, while his Chesapeakes regarded him as an honorary dog and treated him as one of them.

Toc Toc found a mate and raised his own family