Thursday, May 13, 2010

Of Owl and Elephant

Came across 2 good books which are highly recommended for animal lovers.

Wesley - The Story of a Remarkable Owl is a non-fiction book by Stacey O'Brien. Stacey is a Biologist. She adopted a 4 day old baby barn owl which had nerve damage in one wing and could never survive in the wild. The story traces her 19 years relationship with Wesley.

Learn alot of things about barn owl which does not look like those owls we are familar with. It has a heart sharp face with gold and white feathers. The story is written with tendernes and the keen observation of a scientist, making it remarkably touching at the same time funny. Wesley was intelligent and playful doing things which were not typical behaviour of the barn owl species.

The 2nd book is a fictional work about an elephant. Hannah's Dream is by Diane Hammond. Diane was the media liaison for Keiko, the killer whale which acted in Free Willy.

She blended her experience working with the whale and inspiration from a news coverage of a zoo elephant touching parting scene with its long time keeper into her story.

Hannah's Dream is extremely hard to put down as the story is heart warming and captivating read.

For 41 years Hannah has been kept in captivity in isolation at a dilapidated zoo. Hannah is blinded in one eye and thus feel insecure. The only saving grace is its keeper, Sam who treated it like his own child. But he is getting on in years and have been postponing his retirement because he knew Hannah could not survive in such condition without him. He has been having strange dream for years which he believed is Hannah's dream. In his dream, he sees with the eyes of an elephant roaming freely in an animal sanctuary. He wanted to make it a reality for Hannah before his retirement. But Hannah is the zoo star attraction and it seems impossible that the zoo would let go of its main star.

The story has many interesting characters interwoven into its plot. It is irresistibly touching and very uplifting to read about the devotion of Sam to Hannah.

Note
: Elephants are social animals and live in herd. Solitary elephant does not fair well in captivity.

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