First I had no idea that owls could even read, except that one from Winnie the Pooh.

 That first sentence, originally typed in class, is a horrible oversight. Now that I am home, and thanks to the helpful comments posted about it, it is clear I over looked two other owls that can almost certainly read. The first is Charlie the Owl, from the kids show New Zoo Review. The third (brought to my attention by Amber) is the Tootsie Pop Owl. I believe his name is Mr. Owl. To the best of my recollection these three owls are the only owls I know that can read. Of course I have never seen Mr. Owl read, both Owl and Charlie the Owl were show reading all the time, I assume he can read because a) he can both count and speak and b) he wears glasses. If these are the two tell tale signs that an owl can read, we have to assume then that Hedwig (the owl from Harry Potter) is illiterate.  Which seems unfair because she is a magical owl who delivers mail, and it is unlikely (not just in the magic owl community) that one could rise to such a position without the ability to read.  It seems unjust that a magic owl who delivers mail would be unable to read mail, but perhaps that is a security issue. Mail-Owls are bound to carry highly sensitive letters so maybe it is in the best interest of the Wizard community, that Mail-Owls are all illiterate. This idea seems unlikely though since all a Mail-Owl would have to do to commit treason is deliever it’s letter to the wrong recipient, which would be much more likely to happen if said owls are all unable to read. So we must asume that owls do not have to be able to speak or have to wear glasses to read, and just because they do does not mean that they can read. After all just because a person can speak and wears glasses does not mean that he or she can read.  Now that that is cleared up enough about reading like an owl, after all this post is titled Eating Like an Owl and not Reading like an Owl.

So how does an owl eat? Do they eat quickly rudely swallowing their meal in one gulp? Or are they polite taking their time, chewing everything exactly twenty-four times before they swallow (this would greatly help their digestive system). I suspect the previous is more likely as I do not believe that owls have teeth or gums for that matter so they are probably unable to chew at all. Having said that I am reminded an assignment I had to do in highschool. I believe that it was biology (maybe even middle school biology). Each pair of students was given a small clump of fur and bones which we were asked to separate. After that was finished we had to reassemble the bones. The end result was a mouse skelaton that had been through the digestive system of an owl. This showed that owls wasted nothing, all nutrious morsals had been used. I don’t think this was the point of that assignment but I am pretty sure that it is the point of this assignment. Not to actually eat like an owl, but to read as an owl eats. Read everything you can, then let your brains digestive system do its job separating and using all nutrious material and then discarding the “the bones and fur”.

Side note: This far in to this blog it occurs to me that once I again I have been short sighted and left off another Iconic Owl. Woodsy Owl, the spokes Owl for the U.S. Forrest Service who tells us to “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” and “Lend a hand, care for the land.”