Close call last week!

My husband took our 14 month old English Bulldog outside about 10:30 pm for her last pee/poop/sniff...whatever.
We have motion lights on the side of the house, so it was well lit. My husband and I always carry a powerful flashlight with us because we have lots of coyotes, deer, foxes, etc. around here at night and we just wanna scan the area before Lucie sees anything cuz she would probably go chasing after one of them! Anyway....husband spots a great horned owl in the tree next to the house. Next thing he knows, the owl swoops down on Lucie and misses her by about 3 feet. I am sure if it wanted our dog, it would have tried to take it. But Lucie is 40 lbs. and the owl wouldn't have been able to carry her off. But Lucie could have gotten clawed pretty badly! The owls eyesight is excellent. Maybe it thought Lucie was a fat rat or something! Lucie finally realized what happened and started barking at it. It had a wing span of about 3-4 feet. Whew...close call! And Lucie's mom had another litter and the breeder wanted us to babysit the pups but we couldn't cuz of family and graduation weekend, but I thought to myself...what if the owl swooped down on one of the pups and took it away! Arrghh! Try to explain that one to the breeder!
She knows we want one of her pups (even though husband says no) and would think we made it up and are stashing the dog in our house. LOL So now I hover over Lucie when she's out late at night and she looks at me like...."Hey....I'm trying to do some business....back up a bit, will ya?"
Too funny, but scary at the same time!

 

YEah they are scary. THe thing about them is they will go for things much larger than their size. SO he probably wasn't mistaken about the dogs size.

However. An owl knows precisly where to stick its talons. They sever the spinal cord paralizing the animal, then cary it off to consume it.
ALways when a small dog or cat isoutside, watch them closely at night. Owls will eat practically anything moving in the grass. Ie, snakes, cats, rabbits mice, exc....
We've seen them catch chickens......

 

chickens! That's crazy. Glad your little one is alright momma.

Close call.

 

I think if they are hungry enough, they may try it. My neighbors went white water rafting not far from here and they noticed on the shore shore a fawn and mom running and an eagle came down and was trying to try drag and fly away with the fawn but it was too heavy. dont want to even think about that one.

honeybear

 

That is horrible. Glad she didnt get hurt. I would have had a heart attack, my dogs are small enough for an owl to pick up too!

 

Oh My, glad she is alright. Never thought about that happening will havce to watch my little ones close.