A family in Atlanta encountered a regular Hoo-dini.
Katie McBride Newman and her two children, India and Jack, found an Eastern screech owl hiding in their Christmas tree, The Newnan Herald-Times first reported.
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The bird, which was pretty thin upon its discovery, presumably flew into the tree when the family bought it a few days after Thanksgiving and lived there for over a week without anyone noticing.
And although some may think finding an owl taking up residence in their living room would be a total hoot, it terrified 10-year-old India, the first to notice the bird.
Newman told CNN that she was clearing dinner last Thursday when she heard India exclaim, “Oh my gosh!” from the living room.
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“She comes very dramatically into the dining room and goes, ‘Mama, that ornament scared me,’” Newman said. “Then she bursts into tears.”
Newman told CNN that she’s a fan of owls and has about a dozen owl ornaments dangling from her tree. She walked to the tree and was prepared to tell India that she’d just gotten spooked by a holiday decoration. But when Newman peered into the branches, a living owl turned its head and stared right at her.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a real owl,’” Newman said.
Unsure of what to do, Newman called the Department of Natural Resources, which directed her to local nonprofit Chattahoochee Nature Center, according to a blog post from CNC.
“I told her I would try and catch it and do an exam,” Dawn Ellerman, a wildlife technician with CNC, said in the blog post. “If it needed immediate care she would take it to a rehabber.”
Ellerman left the family with some food, supplements and advice on how to urge the owl back into the wild, suggesting the family leave the bird in a crate in a darkened room and open it outside after dark.
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Newman later posted another photo of the owl in the tree after she had left the bird a plate of raw chicken.
“When I peeked around the tree to check on him, he hopped back up to his perch on the higher branch,” she wrote.
Ellerman’s adviceseemed to do the trick: By 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, the owl was gone.
Newman did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for comment. However, she wrote about the entire experience on Saturday.
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“Thank you for the honor you bestowed on our family,” she wrote on Facebook. “For making the magic & mystery of advent come alive in our home, and for inspiring connection among all who followed the adventure.”
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