AUBURN — Thanks to a perceptive good Samaritan, a young barred owl will live to see another day.

Rick Hudson of Greene was driving his truck on Hotel Road in Auburn on Saturday when he saw something in the road.

“I wasn’t sure what it was, and it dawned on me once I passed it,” Hudson said. It was an owl, curled up in a ball, in the middle of the lane.

“I didn’t know whether it had been hit, or whether it was alive,” he said. “I had no idea at all. I thought, if it’s alive, I can’t let someone else hit it, I can’t keep going.”

So Hudson turned his vehicle around in a nearby driveway and went back to the spot he saw the owl, throwing his flashers on and running over to the incapacitated bird.

“It just sat there, curled up in a ball, probably terrified, and I approached it,” Hudson said. Wearing gloves, he didn’t know if the bird, which he now recognized as alive, would bite him, or protest his help.

“It didn’t really put up a fuss,” he said. “It was very docile and gentle.”

After he picked it up, a couple pulled over and offered to help wrap the owl in a towel so it couldn’t fly off. Hudson planned to transport the bird to the nearest emergency veterinary clinic, but the woman said she knew of Avian Haven Rehabilitation Center in Freedom that could come pick the bird up in 20 minutes.

But, in the meantime, Hudson took the owl to his truck, where he tried to keep it wrapped up and calm. He said he talked softly to it and stroked its head. The owl moved its head around, and its huge eyes were open for the entire experience.

“It was a wild animal, not something you pet at a petting zoo. It was pretty amazing,” he said.

Hudson said someone from the center came and got the bird.

In a Facebook post, Hudson said the owl had “a scratched cornea, an injury to the other eye, and a soft shoulder injury.” The bird will be treated for its injuries.

“I’m thankful I was there to stop,” Hudson said. “I love animals, but seeing it cowered in the road, knowing that someone could hit it and kill it, I just couldn’t let that happen. It was really important to me to try and get back to the animal and try and save it,” he said.

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