Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe

Stony Brook University ecology professor Safina (Becoming Wild) shares the moving story of how he and his wife, Patricia, rescued and rehabilitated an orphaned eastern screech owl they named Alfie. Safina, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, took in the bird in 2018 after receiving a tip about a baby owl that had fallen out of its nest. Nursing Alfie back to health, the Safinas let her roam freely about their house and gradually acclimated her to the outdoors, keeping the owlet first in a chicken coop and then leaving the coop door open so she could come and go as she pleased. Safina continued providing Alfie meals until she learned to hunt on her own, and she eventually found a mate, dubbed Plus-One, with whom she raised a brood. Philosophical musings on humanity’s beliefs about nature add intellectual rigor to the heartwarming story; Safina laments how Plato’s view of the spiritual world as distinct from and superior to the material world led Western society to devalue nature, a perspective Safina contrasts critically with Native American cultures that believe animals are “thinking and emotional beings who have minds, communicate among themselves, [and] act with agency on their own behalf.” Stirring and ruminative, this is an excellent complement to Irene Pepperberg’s Alex and Me. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Oct.)