What's all this about owls?

It seems Andy and Kate had not had a fire in the fireplace for awhile, and when Kate tried to get one started one cool evening it just couldn't seem to get going, so she called her husband to see what might be blocking the chimney. When telling this story Kate hastens to explain that her husband is very brave and a gallant defender in all instances except when it comes to birds. "It's all that flapping about that I dislike," he explains, and then goes on to tell how he moved the smoking kindling over so as to allow him to peer up the chimney, and, seeing nothing amiss, began prodding into the chimney's interior with an iron poker. At that point a large tawny owl tumbled down into the fireplace, apparently having been dislodged by Andy's vigorous poking. At about the same time Kate came back into the room,just in time to see the owl take off and crash right into her living room wall. The bird fell stunned to the floor, whereupon Kate sprang forward and picked it up by the feet. "Fortunately," she reports, "I had thought to put on gloves, so when the owl fastened its claws around my wrist it did no harm" Fortunately? I should rather think it was a piece of brilliant foresightedness. I'm not sure where Andy was during all this, but he makes no claim to have been searching for a pair of heavy gloves! Nor does he deny having used his most extreme expressions of displeasure at their loudest possible pitch. The disgruntled bird was quickly deposited outside in his natural element, and very shortly flew off, apparently none the worse for having fallen into a fireplace. So what's all this about owls? It does not seem ominous to me that they have popped into my awareness often in recent memory...owls have served as harbingers of rebirth for me in the past, and if that requires some form of death in order to occur, oh well! Tomorrow Nancy and I will observe our 14th wedding anniversary, and I recall, when we were first dating, being in Alabama on a hunting trip and listening to the Bard Owls calling to each other in the night. They did not call my name, but their love songs did reveal the nature of my life since then. So I appreciate owls, whether carved on the walls of churches or hooting in the Alabama woods, but prefer that they stay out of the chimney.