'You don’t expect an owl to come down your chimney': Victoria woman inspired to paint by unlikely visitor
When Beth Doman arrived home that night, she was greeted by a peculiar sound coming from her fireplace.
“Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch,” she imitates the sound and points up the chimney. “And just a little bit of soot coming down here.”
Beth wondered if it was a rodent and approached the fireplace to investigate.
“Then all of a sudden this explosion of feathers came into the fireplace!” Beth says.
She thought it was a hawk at first, before the bird flew over the fireplace grate and into her living room.
“It sat on my couch and stared at me,” Beth laughs.
It was an owl.
By the time Beth could grab her phone to capture the uninvited guest on camera, the bird had flown to her front entrance and perched on her hanging coats.
“You don’t expect an owl to come down your chimney,” Beth says. “So I was a bit in shock for a minute.”
Which was followed by worry for the bird’s well-being.
“It’s OK,” Beth says while filming the owl with one hand and opening her front door with the other. “I’m going to let you outside.”
Then the video shows the owl erupting with a flurry of feathers from the floor back to the hanging coats.
“Oh my god!” Beth screams, before reassuring the owl and gesturing to the open door. “It’s OK, sweetie. There you go.”
But the owl wouldn’t leave.
“I named him Barry,” Beth smiles. “Barry the barred owl.”
After another 20 minutes, Barry bolted — seemingly uninjured — beyond Beth’s front door and back to the wild.
When I told all my friends, they were asking if I got my Hogwarts letter,” Beth smiles. “I didn’t get a letter!”
In lieu of a handwritten letter inviting her to enroll in Harry Potter’s school of witchcraft and wizardry, Beth decided to express her thoughts and feelings about Barry by putting paint to paper.
“Owls have a lot of meaning in different cultures,” Beth says. “Sometimes they can be harbingers of doom, other times they’re a blessing.”
Perhaps because she’d been painting watercolours of birds for years, Beth says Barry’s visit very much felt like a blessing.
“I feel really special that he chose my chimney to fall down,” Beth smiles. “And I got to have such a close experience with a wild animal.”
Beth also got to illustrate how this story ends, by painting a portrait of Barry perched happily on a branch in the wild. You can see the owl looking over his shoulder having delivered not post to Potter, but magical inspiration nonetheless.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Live updates: What star witness in Trump hush money case has said on the stand so far
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
When you have a moment's notice to evacuate, what do you take?
Knowing what to have at home, or take with you for an evacuation, can be useful and even life-saving.
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
Canucks' Soucy suspended 1 game, Zadorov fined $5,000 for post-game crosschecks on McDavid
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sues for defamation over National Enquirer, InTouch Weekly stories
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.
Wildfire smoke drifts across Canada, over parts of U.S., prompting air quality advisories
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
'A great victory for the industry': Taxi drivers celebrate ruling that found City of Ottawa negligent in allowing Uber to operate
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.