The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar

March 17, 2014
Historian Windrow (The French Foreign Legion) reminisces on 16 years living with “Mumble,” his pet tawny owl, and provides a scientific and historical background on the charming creatures. He covers the basic necessities of owl ownership: explaining building her enclosure, complete with “Double-Reciprocating Owl Valve”; diet; and dealing with “a fair amount of owl crap.”Drawing from diary entries, Windrow tracks Mumble’s developments like changes in calls and flight skills and the turmoil of molting season. Described as a “cat with wings,” Mumble has her flaws, including “unquenchable lust” for shoelaces, aggressive behavior with guests, and bringing “certain death to houseplants.” Windrow gives an anatomy lesson and outlines the tawny’s life in the wild—a harrowing battle for territory and prey that results in short life expectancy—as well as their nesting and fledgling process. In amusing anecdotes, Windrow recalls luring Mumble back inside in the middle of the night after an escape and later her disgruntled reaction to a wild suitor outside the apartment. While Windrow might have benefited from greater concision, this is a heartfelt and heartbreaking testament to humans’ love for their animal companions and the ways they enrich our lives. Photos and illus. Agent: Ian Drury, Sheil Land Associates.

June 1, 2014
The life of a man and his feathered friend.Though owls are not common pets, Osprey Publishing military editor Windrow (Our Friends Beneath the Sands, 2012, etc.) developed a 15-year friendship with a tawny owl that lived in his apartment. Needing a companion after a sky diving accident, the author first tried a little owl; however, this bird escaped, so he tried a tawny owl. Right from the start, Mumble, as Windrow called his female tawny, proved to be the perfect friend. Using notes and photographs from their time together, the author intertwines anecdotes of living in a small apartment with a bird the size of a loaf of bread with the evolution, zoology and social life of owls, providing readers with lots of information not normally found outside of bird identification books. One favorite experience Windrow remembers fondly is how Mumble loved to snuggle into his neck after his shower. "Her head and neck smelt delicious-clean, warm, wooly, and sort of...biscuit," he writes. "If I stopped nuzzling her for even a moment she squeaked insistently, shoving her face upwards. She loved it when I rubbed the close triangle of short feathers immediately above her beak and between her eyes." Due to his desire for this friendship, Windrow was willing to cover the apartment with plastic and newspapers for the inevitable "strongly acidic, foul-smelling brown-and-white sludge" and provide whole baby chicks for Mumble's food, which she tore at with great pleasure-such eccentricities made the author's friends question his sensibilities. Rich in minutiae enveloped by a sense of fondness for this affectionate bird, Windrow's tale is unusual and endearing and takes the idea of an animal/human friendship to new heights.Delightful and informative reminiscences of one man's life with his pet owl.

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Starred review from April 1, 2014

In 1977, British military historian Windrow (series editor, Osprey Publishing; The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam) acquired a tawny owl, a raptor roughly the size of a bread loaf. It didn't work out; the bird, probably too old to adjust to his new life, escaped. Windrow was almost relieved, yet yearned to try again. The next year the author acquired a domestically bred hatchling, young enough to bond. Thus began a 15-year relationship during which Windrow learned as much about himself as he did about the bird, whom he named Mumble. Mumble turned out to be more of a companion than expected. In many ways, Windrow observed, Mumble was like a cat with wings--but her diet was dead chicks eaten raw and she relieved herself on everything. It took the author 20 years after Mumble's death to write this book; readers will be glad that he did. There's a lot of quiet humor here but it's the scientific knowledge about tawny owls and Windrow's affectionate descriptions of Mumble's (and his own) daily life that make the title a gem. The line drawings in ink by Christa Hook are delightful. VERDICT This treasure of a text will delight animal and pet lovers of all kinds, and is recommended to readers of memoirs as well.--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
The sweetly smiling older gent on this book's jacket is seen inside in photos, too, but they depict a much-younger man, often with a little, stern owl perched on his shoulder. The tawny owl, Mumble, met her end too soon, and thus it took Windrow (The Last Valley, 2005) many years to put aside his sadness and pull together his notebooks and photos depicting their 15-year owl-man relationship, living together in England. Windrow has an endearing, entertaining voice, not without a sense of humor. He not only describes his relationship with the little owl ( love at first sight ) but also gives owl history, the species' contemporary existence, precautions, and more. Windrow's journal entries from the time are scattered throughout, and they reveal his careful attention to Mumble's learning to speak and fly and adapt to her unusual life. Containing many photos as well as Christa Cook's beautifully detailed sketches, this is a gentle, touching love story that will appeal to all pet owners, not just those fond of tawny owls, which Windrow describes as something like cats that can fly. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)