Risky Business
It was a dreary chilly December Sunday afternoon when the phone rang. On the other end of the line was a man that had a problem. He and his wife had gone outside, heard a noise in the tree and discovered a large Red Tail Hawk hanging from a crack in the tree. Currently, I’ve been sending injured animals to the Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital but I could not turn my back on this bird. I drove to their home in Barberton and sure enough there he hung. It was clear to me that he had flown after his lunch (most likely a squirrel), the squirrel ran down the hole in the tree and the hawk grabbed and slid down into the crack. The tree was on a small bank and of course, the branch was going the direction of downhill. I do not care for heights but knew I had to help. The man had a twenty foot ladder that I could use so I told him and his wife I would go up the ladder if they could get a death grip on it to prevent it from coming down with me. The top rung was against the tree and I could only stand on the next rung down. I wrapped my left arm around the limb and stretched as far as I could to reach the hawk with my other arm. He was a good three inches down from the top of the crack. Standing on tip toes, it took me a few minutes to even get him to move toward the top of the crack.
I don’t know how much time went by but I was finally successful in freeing him. The hawk was so exhausted he did not even give me a hard time. The right leg was completely destroyed and the left leg was torn up pretty bad from him struggling to get free. I took him right to the Veterinary hospital. Unfortunately, he could not be saved but his suffering was ended. Humans do not think of things like this happening, but it does. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Minnick for caring enough to get this bird help. – @Fran Kitchen
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