Trust me Pete, that crossed my mind on more than one occasion. But when I first moved here I was constantly being woke up in the middle of the night by badgers and foxes scratching on the back door for food - the previous tenant was an animal lover. There was a cat flap in the back door, and it wasn't unusual to wake up and find a fox cleaning the plates in the sink...
About five years ago, I was driving home at stupid o'clock in the morning and I saw something in the middle of the road. As I got closer, I realised it was an owl. The poor thing was right in the middle of the A22 at Blindley Heath. So, I stopped the car in the middle of the road, put the hazzard lights on and picked him up (very carefully) and put him on the passenger seat of my car. All was well until I approached Oxted and he seemed to liven up. He flapped his wings and flew onto the steering wheel. As I turned the wheel, craning my next to see around him, he'd lift his huge talons to make sure he stayed at the top of the wheel. Fuck knows what the police would have made of the situation had they spotted him ! Anyway, to cut a long story short, when I arrived home and gave the Missus the shock of her life when she saw me with this bloody great bird in my hands, we stuck him in a cat basket and took him to a local animal sanctuary the morning after. The lady at the centre said she thought he'd been struck by a vehicle and had been stunned and it didn't look like he'd survive but she asked me to call back in a few days. When I called, she said he was fully recovered and ready to be released but as owls are territorial, could I collect him and release him where I found him. So, at 02:00AM one morning, down a dim, dark country lane just off the A22 we opened the cat basket and he was gone. Quick as a flash and as silent as the night into the nearest oak tree. He was a beautiful creature and I wish him all the best. He was a tawny owl, the only owls in the UK that hoot.
