MARK WAITE / PVT Fred Smith holds the great horned owl as it spreads its wings. Advertisement

Fred and Lynn Smith, residents of the far northwest side of Pahrump Valley, got an unexpected, illegal visitor over July fourth, with big, bulging, yellow eyes, a feathery backside and fierce claws.

Fred was driving in from work in Las Vegas Tuesday evening, July 3. Lynn had just finished chasing ravens off her patio, not that unusual in a neighborhood where various wildlife can show up from the surrounding desert.

"My husband called on the cell phone, 'Do you know there's an owl on the patio?' And I said 'What?" And he said, 'Look at the pot' and on that flower pot he was perched," Lynn recalled.

The Smiths called a neighbor who arrived with gloves and a net. Lynn said the owl couldn't fly, so they threw a net over him. That wasn't all that seemed odd about a wild and carnivorous bird.

"When Fred picked him up out of the thing, he just got into his arms. He wasn't aggressive. I mean he should've bit his head off.," Lynn said.

The Smiths said they were alarmed when they called Nye County Animal Control and an officer suggested they put the wounded owl out on the curb and let the coyotes eat it.

For the record, Nye County Animal Control Officer Tim McCarty said Nevada Division of Wildlife rangers would advise them by phone to "put it under a bush and let nature take its course."

Shelter employees wouldn't be allowed to keep the owl legally, he said, but added he doubts employees would've used the language cited by the Smiths. The nearest state wildlife officer is based in Ely.

A trip to the Animal Care Center of Pahrump on the north end of Highway 160 just before 5 p.m. elicited advice to bring the bird to Las Vegas. The Smiths were afraid the owl was already traumatized and that a trip over the hump might kill it.

The Smiths eventually got more cooperation by calling Las Vegas. A representative of Wild Wings Inc., a bird rescue group in Las Vegas, told the Smiths to take the owl to the North Las Vegas Animal Hospital.

They also spoke with Pat Dingle from the Las Vegas Zoo, who thought the owl was in shock, which could explain why it didn't attack the Smiths, and offered to take the bird in at the zoo.

Fred got on the Internet, doing some research. He guessed it was probably a short-eared, horned owl. The Wild Wing Project representative thought it could be a juvenile that hadn't yet grown the big tufts.

"I've had to learn real quick. Now I've had a lot of exotic birds, cockatoos and things like that, but nothing like this, nothing as majestic as this bird is," Fred said.

"My husband and I are at such a loss as to how he survived and got here. I know most of this neighborhood and I don't know anybody had an owl," Lynn said. "Somebody raised him. You can tell. He's healthy, he's not eaten up by nature."

The owl was a bit of a tourist attraction for people in the neighborhood who know the Smiths.

The couple were advised the owl likes to dine on mice, but Lynn said, "I don't do mice very well."

Fred joked if Lynn didn't want to put a mouse's tail in her teeth and feed it to the owl she could eat a mouse and regurgitate it for the bird.

Fred said they eventually fed the owl chicken strips with calcium. The owl was later put in their garage, cooled by a swamp cooler, since the bird cut its wings in the large dog cage lent by a neighbor.

Finally, the owl was taken to Dr. Patrick Hauck, at Flamingo Pet Clinic in Las Vegas, a licensed aviary veterinarian. Hauck said the bird, identified as actually a subspecies of the more ferocious great horned owl, probably flew out of the Mount Charleston area and hit a power line, fracturing one wing.

"Although it definitely was not acting like a wild owl, it didn't mean that it couldn't come out of it and be very wild," Fred said.

"Other than that one wing the bird showed good condition and [Hauck] said it was an excellent candidate for rehabilitation and release to the wild," Fred said.

The bird was being treated with antibiotics at the veterinarian's office, then will be transported to the Wild Wing Project, where Fred said hopefully it will be released into the wild.

Fred said he hopes it's a happy outcome such as on occasions when he was head of security at the Wet n' Wild Amusement Park in Las Vegas and mallard ducks would be nesting every year when the park opened.

Dingle, from the Las Vegas Zoo, used to take the ducks out to coves on Lake Mead and set them free.

The moral of the story? Lynn said they just needed some local number to call for help. "Unless you just don't care about animals," she said.

Donna's Studio of Dance

Donna's Studio of Dance is now holding registration for classes to be held from 10 a.m. to noon, Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 at the studio, 401 S. Frontage Road, Suite No. 3 .

For more information call 209-3059.

Night Run

Harley Hog's and Hot Rod's ride again July 13.

The ride has stops at Mountain Springs, Last Chance Saloon in Pahrump and ends at the Short Branch Saloon in Crystal, Nevada.

A $25 donation includes a pig roast and breakfast. Proceeds go the Boys' and Girls' Club of Pahrump.

RSVP please. Call Miss Kathy at 775-372-1717 or Miss Janie at 702-376-3711.