Owls in the Family

“‘All right,’ Bruce said to the two crows which were swooping and hollering at us. ‘If you want me to snitch your eggs—I will!’ With that he handed me his haversack and began to shinny up the tree.”

While the boys are somewhat fond of their “pets” and respect nature in a general sense, they are not sentimental about all animals, especially those that inconvenience them. Thus, it becomes a short leap for an animal’s status to shift from “pet” to “pest.” Bruce accordingly has no issue with stealing the crow’s eggs in retaliation for the inconvenience of being attacked from the air. He has not humanized these particular birds and therefore sees nothing wrong in acting unjustly and causing them harm.

“[T]here was Mutt, my dog—but he wasn’t a pet; he was one of the family.”

In his initial overview of his life and home, Billy makes it a point to emphasize that there is a distinct difference between animals that are kept at the home, like a pet, and animals that distinguish themselves as family. In Billy’s mind, these two categories are quite separate and justify his widely varying treatment of the various animals for which he is responsible.

“There was one thing about Mr. Miller. You couldn’t stop him for long.”

The boys like their teacher, Mr. Miller, who has a love for the prairie equal to their own. They note that Mr. Miller is determined to reach his goal, in this case, photographing the owl. By admiring this attribute in their teacher, the boys use Mr. Miller as a model for their own endeavors, and accordingly they also strive to remain focused and determined whenever problems arise. This dynamic becomes apparent when they are trying to get the owls as pets and win awards in the pet parade. It’s clear the boys see Mr. Miller’s tenacity as a valuable quality worth emulating.

“He sure must think owls are dumb.”

Bruce’s observation about Mr. Miller shows that the boys give owls much more credit for intelligence than their teacher does. They believe owls to be much more than run-of-the-mill animals that do not demonstrate logical reasoning or pay attention to their surroundings beyond the need for basic survival. The boys believe the owls to be intelligent enough to note the change in their environment caused by the blind. This initial sense of respect for the owls’ innate wisdom also helps establish why the boys attribute so much thought and reason to their own owls as the story progresses.

“They begin to lay their eggs in March when it’s still winter on the prairie. The eggs are laid a few days apart, but from the time the first one is laid, the mother has to start ‘setting.’ [...] The first egg that’s laid hatches first, and that young owl gets a four- or five-day head start on the next one [...].”

In this section, the narrator, Billy, demonstrates his usual style of intertwining bits of factual knowledge with the details of his story. This tendency serves to establish him as a reliable narrator who has a deep understanding of owls and birds in general.

“After that we were friends. When Bruce and I started to walk away from him, just to see what he would do, the owl followed right along behind us like a dog.”

In this simile, the young owl is compared to a dog, an animal that Billy already considers to be family, and thus, this early description serves to foreshadow the fact that Wol will soon become much more than a pet to Billy—even though at this point he still refers to the owl as a pet. Wol will ultimately become a family member to Billy just as Mutt is.

“I remembered Christopher Robin’s owl in Winnie-the-Pooh. ‘His name is Wol,’ I said. And Wol he was, forever after.”

In this strategic use of allusion, Farley Mowat draws an immediate comparison between Billy’s new owl and the fictional owl in Winnie-the-Pooh, which suggests that both owls will share some of the same characteristics beyond just being anthropomorphized. In A. A. Milne’s story, the original character of Wol is wise, though he often misreads situations and causes problems, and thus Billy’s Wol goes on to demonstrate similar behavior. Additionally, Milne’s Wol is an integral member of the Hundred Acre Woods’s family, just as Mowat’s Wol becomes an important member of Billy’s family.

“But my father never stayed mad long.”

Billy’s father is quick to forgive Billy, even when it means a major shift in lifestyle, as will inevitably occur now that their maid has left due to the presence of the owl. Throughout the text, Billy’s father exhibits forgiveness toward Billy and his pets, highlighting how these dual traits of forgiveness and acceptance are important elements that are vital to the healthy functioning of any family unit.

“Funny how some kids are. One minute Georgie Barnes was trying to kill the little owl with stones, but the moment I bought it he began to act as if he wanted to be its nurse.”

Billy’s insight into Georgie’s shifting behavior highlights Billy’s perceptiveness in evaluating people’s behavior. He knows which people are bullies and which are friends, and he also understands how to ensure his own safety around bullies. This particular exchange also hints at his appreciation for being surrounded by people or animals whose behaviors are predictable.

“I could hear the river boiling over the sand bars as I sat at my desk, and I could smell the sticky-sweet smell of the young poplar leaves.”

Mowat makes it a point to utilize lavish descriptions and vivid imagery to articulate the depth of Billy’s relationship with nature. Almost every sense is fully represented as Billy revels in the sights, sounds, smells, and tactile experiences of the outdoors. His descriptions of the natural world are rich and intimate, revealing his deep knowledge and close connection to nature.

“[W]hen people laughed at Wol it hurt his feelings and upset him.”

Billy frequently anthropomorphizes Wol’s actions by attributing human motivations to his behavior. Influenced by his own human perceptions of the world, he draws on his knowledge of common social interactions to give Wol human-like feelings and responses. Although it sometimes results in unfair interpretations of various animals’ natural behavior, this tendency of Billy’s also serves the pragmatic narrative purpose of reimagining Wol as a relatable character rather than just an animal.

“We spent the next couple of days planning what we’d do.”

When Billy and his friends want to accomplish something, they persevere in the face of multiple difficulties. In this scene, they spend time planning a way to present all of their animals at the animal parade so that they will be the ones most likely to win first prize. Rather than just grabbing what they can and entering, they put in time and work to make a favorable impression.

“Right in the middle of the parade there was a boy leading a pet skunk on a string. [...] There were pet rabbits, ducks, chickens, geese, a couple of pigs, and a bunch of pedigree calves.”

Mowat’s decision to list the sheer variety of the other children’s pets serves to normalize Billy’s owls as pets, for although it may initially seem out of the ordinary to keep so many wild animals as pets, it becomes clear that in Saskatoon, having unusual animals is the norm.

“Perhaps because Wol had never read those books he was just as active in the daytime as at night, and maybe more so.”

Billy personifies Wol in his supposition that the owl could, perhaps, read. His naive take on Wol’s intelligence level also fails to acknowledge Wol’s lack of proper parenting and training by wild parents, which is of course the main reason for his failure to exhibit the behaviors typical of his species.

“His feelings must have been hurt by the way everybody kept trying to avoid him. After two or three days, when even I wouldn’t go near him, or let him come near me, he became very unhappy. Then an idea must have come into his funny head. He must have decided we were mad at him [...].”

Billy attributes thought, emotion, and reasoning to Wol. This use of personification makes Wol seem to be more than just an owl, transforming him into a sensitive, thoughtful being who has deep emotions and is capable of showing and receiving love.

“[I]f he didn’t, some crows would be sure to spot him and then they would call up all the other crows for miles around and try to mob him. [...] He wasn’t afraid of the crows; it was just that he couldn’t fight back when they tormented him.”

Because bullies exist in Billy’s world, he assumes that they also exist in the owls’ world in the form of crows. The crows come after Wol without being provoked, just as the tough kids later in the chapter come after Billy without being provoked. Also, like Billy, Wol isn’t afraid of his bullies, but he knows that he cannot fight back properly and must find other, more clever ways to deal with the situation.

“[W]e liked it because it made us feel that this was the olden times, and the prairie belonged to us, to the buffaloes and the Indians, and to the prairie wolves.”

The boys’ appreciation for the prairie and simpler times is revealed in how the coyote’s howl evokes a powerful emotional response from them. Billy feels a sense of ownership and stewardship of the land, which he shares with the native peoples as well as the animals of the prairie.

“Did you ever hear a horned owl scream? [...] If you’ve ever heard an owl scream you’ll know it’s just about the most scary sound in all the world.”

Billy’s narration switches from first person to second person in this single paragraph of text, creating a casual tone that forges a direct connection with the readers, asking them to search their own experiences and attempt to relate to the situation that the boy so eagerly describes.

“[W]e finally had to stop trying to keep [Wol] out of the house. If we locked him out he would come and bang his big beak against the window panes so hard we were afraid the glass would break.”

Wol’s stubbornness and insistence on getting what he wants mirrors Billy’s own determination to do the same in life. The shared trait highlights the connection between Billy and Wol and provides an explanation for why Billy feels so deeply for the owl.

“Once I heard her telling a friend that, until a woman had tried to bake a cake, with two horned owls looking over her shoulders, she hadn’t really lived at all!”

Billy’s mother is not often spoken of in the book, so this insight into her character stands out. It reveals that the owls are not only beloved by the boys and accepted by Billy’s father, but they also become significant to Billy’s mother and a key element of her day-to-day life in the household. Rather than lamenting the owls’ newfound freedom to enter the house, she indicates that it offers her some excitement and companionship.

“Of course, whenever we took the caravan on a trip, Mutt and the owls had to come along.”

The use of the phrase “of course” in this quote indicates that bringing both Mutt and the owls on family vacations is non-negotiable and firmly establishes the owls as members of the family and not just pets. Additionally, that the owls are referenced as equals to Mutt is significant because Billy has already established that Mutt is family.

“[W]hen Weeps made up his mind to join us in the canoe one day, Wol got up his nerve and decided he’d come too.”

Up until this point, Weeps has consistently been described as a follower who shows reluctance to act independently. In this instance, Weeps demonstrates a new sense of agency and decides on his own to go into the canoe with the boys without having Wol as his leader. It is a moment of growth for Weeps.

“Next morning Dad got out his shotgun and swore he was going to even up the score.”

The desire of Billy’s father to “even up the score” against the offending crows demonstrates humanity’s wanton destruction of nature. The crows he is so angry at were merely acting out of animal instinct. Billy’s father, on the other hand, is acting out of a desire for revenge, and acting on this desire only serves to destroy elements of the natural world.