This snowy owl – extremely rare in Washington, DC -- was the very first patient at City Wildlife, back in 2013. It was found injured downtown, and they were asked if they could help. They hadn’t quite started operating yet, but agreed to take in the owl, who they nursed back to health and sent to an out-of-state wildlife refuge.

*****

We went to the annual open house of City Wildlife, the only organization in the District of Columbia that rescues and rehabilitates the city’s wildlife. They hold this event every winter, when there are few animals being treated at the facility, and they don’t offer tours the rest of the year because they feel their patients would be too stressed with people constantly gawking at them. This will be a very small gallery, with some pictures of past residents and other things I was able to photograph, but it was very interesting and heartening to see that they have filled the gap for a service that was sadly lacking here.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

Trapped, posted earlier: