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I hear they are letting Hooter out on bail.

'Hooter' to be released soon

By Jeff Kaplan, [e-mail]

RAYMOND — A call came into the Raymond Police Department dispatcher on a cold night last week. An adult male was lying in middle of the road. Officer Tim Loveless, 23, was dispatched to the scene.

It was 12:30 a.m. when Loveless pulled up to the subject, who was lying, weak and starving, in the road. Loveless returned to his cruiser for a blanket, covered the subject and carried him back to the car.

Loveless drove the subject back to the station, took a mug shot and wrote on the bottom of the photo, "Hooter" — Hooter, because the subject was an owl.

Loveless, on the force since March, had saved a life. Hooter is doing well in the care of Donna Harned, who works at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Stratham. Harned is a certified wildlife rehabilitator and is nursing Hooter back to health.

"He got a few good meals," Harned said. "That's all he needed." Loveless has saved animals before. He is a self-professed animal lover, who has four dogs and many cats. Three of the four dogs were rescued.

"One is from the pet shop," he said. "The dog wasn't making any sales. We decided to save him instead of seeing him put down. Another was a junkyard dog that was beaten a lot and we saved him.

"The third was pretty much the same as the first. He just couldn't get sold."

The cats, he said, were rescued from a nursing home.

"My sister often goes to visit our grandmother in Lowell when she was in a nursing home," he said. "They always have cats running around that look like they're starving, so she lured them with some food."

Harned said bard owls are common in New Hampshire, but they're nocturnal, so they're rarely seen. When they migrate, some can't compete.

"At this time of year what happens is it's time to go (south) and they have to leave the area and they enter another bard owl's area and they compete for food," she said. "Sometimes when they get hungry they end up on the ground."

Harned said it would take about a week for Hooter to regain strength, but she would keep him for a few weeks to make sure the owl isn't suffering from any other ailments. If all goes well, she plans to release Hooter on her birthday, Saturday, Dec. 22, for a fitting present for them both.