Wild Thang................

This weekend Wayne, Liz and I and a few other folks braved the intense heat and set up a booth at the Wildlife Festival in Blue Ridge. Unfortunately, the turn out was not that great but on Saturday we had a constant crowd of people at our BRAEA booth. This was because we had the only actual wildlife at the Wildlife Festival!!

We were very lucky to have Monteen from Hawk Talk at our booth for the day on Saturday. She brought Sam, a Great Horned Owl that she has had for over 20 years! Twenty years ago some people found Sam on the ground after he fell out of his nest. They kept him illegally for a year until they finally realized that owning an owl is really a lot of work! Thankfully, they gave him up to a raptor rehabber (Monteen) so that he could get proper care. Unfortunately, by that time though, he was so habituated to humans that he was not releasable. So he has been with Monteen ever since.

Sam was so much fun and such a wonderful addition to our booth!!



We also happened to have a Harris Hawk. We lucked out on this one because Monteen received a call that morning about a hawk that she was having transferred to her care. He was delivered to the festival and also hung out with us for a little while in our booth. He wasn't as used to being an education animal as Sam so we didn't keep him out for too long. He was really a beautiful bird though!! We took the liberty of naming him Sir Harris.

Monteen really does great work for these beautiful birds of prey and has dedicated her life to their rehabilitation and survival. If you would like to make a donation to her (her facility is in Holly Springs, GA which is near Canton) please go to her website and donate. I know times are tough for everyone right now but they are tough for Monteen and her birds too. They need to have the mouse money coming in so that they can have a healthy breakfast!! :) Knit Witch donated $100 this morning as a thank you for Sam and Sir Harris joining us over the weekend. Be sure to check out her website because she has a great video there about her birds. If you donate between now and Friday I will put your name in a bowl for every $5 that you donate and we'll give away some Knit Witch yarn!!! Just send me an email (theknitwitch@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog with how much you have donated and we will get your name entered!!

We didn't bring our camera but Liz did so when I get some pictures from her I will post a few more for you. It was a good weekend but we sure are glad to not have to be sitting in the sun all day today!!