the wild parts

there's a large, tall cage just outside the door with enormous tree branches set up as perches. inside are owls and other creatures I'm not as interested in. the cats get in and go after a baby owl-- I rush in and pull them off, but they've had him on the ground, and I'm worried for him. he seems to have shrunk inside himself, to look no longer even like an owl but rather some other type of smaller bird-- his eys are closed, and I'm so afraid for him-- I stroke his feathers lightly and speak quietly, begging him, please, to be all right, promising that I'll look after him from now on. I set him down on the porch and step away, go away for awhile, giving him some quiet space-- and when I come back later, he's better, alert and back to his normal baby-owl size-- and when he sees me, he hoos like he's been waiting for me.

I'm staying in a house beside the northern beach when we find five... what are they? like sasquatch-- another race-- biped, hairy, peaceful... who have been living in the woods. they have some particular name, a word I've never heard before, what they are, the... something or other. and we take them into our house where they'll be safe-- we hide them away from the dangers of the world, other people. but then people start coming to the house, and we're struggling to keep them safe and hidden-- and their fellows are supposed to be on their way-- so we keep a lookout, and when, one morning, I see them come walking single file along the water line, I debate for a moment how not to startle them (they're a shy and wild people)-- and then they see me and know it's me and turn toward me up the beach-- but there are the other people in the house-- so I move quickly to cut them off-- and they startle and turn and run back the way they came. I think, it's unfortunate that I couldn't explain it to them, but at least they'll be safer back in the woods.