Successful release Ann Fletcher, a volunteer with Wildcat Wildlife Center, released a rehabilitated barred owl last Wednesday night between Delphi and Yeoman. She brought the owl in a box, and when she opened it, the owl wasted no time in flying away. It first landed in a tree, and then flew to the top of a pole. Come photos by Jennifer Archibald Two veteran "garage salers" were driving to Monticello one morning to poke through a rummage sale at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, when one of the ladies spotted a large bird sitting in the ditch.

As they were driving back home along Highway 421, Shirley Heathcote noticed that the bird was still there. She parked her truck along the roadside and carefully approached the creature.

"He was looking away from me, and I said, 'Are you all right?' He turned toward me, and his big ol' eyes just stared at me. I knew he was hurt."

Heathcote had found a barred owl. She said she took one look at the beautiful bird with its striped plumage and knew she had to save it.

Back to the truck she went, and got an afghan. But when she threw it over the owl, he clawed it away. Undaunted, she went back to the truck for back-up provisions - a grocery sack.

It took Heathcote and her garage-saling partner Jean Sales, and the blanket and the bag to trap the owl and deposit him into the truck.

Heathcote grimaced ruefully at the marks on her fingers left by the owl's talons. But she smiled as she described the bird.

"It was so beautiful about 12 inches tall and all feathers and big eyes and a little beak. I was happy all the way to town and just hoped it would live."

She took the bird to Wildcat Wildlife Center and left it with a volunteer. She said in the days that ensued, she wondered whether it was recuperating.

WWC assistant director Denise Hays told her the owl had probably been struck by a vehicle while it was flying across the road in pursuit of prey. It had sustained injuries to its head and eye.

Hays said the owl was very lucky to be rescued. If it hadn't been picked up, it would probably have been struck by another car, she said.

The owl recovered after three months of rehabilitation. Last Wednesday it was released back into the area where it was found.