聽過「仙鶴報恩」的故事嗎？南非也有一段非常溫馨又可愛的「貓頭鷹報恩」真人真事！一隻貓頭鷹連續4年帶著「大禮」送給一戶家庭，禮物包括老鼠、 蛇、小鳥等等獵物，原因是這戶人家的男主人曾經救過牠一命，還悉心照顧牠直到傷口復元。從那之後，貓頭鷹便經常回來探望他，而且不只男主人有禮物，連他家 的寵物貓也有一份！

根據外電報導，南非一名男子Chris Pretorius 在4 年前拯救了一隻貓頭鷹，並且悉心照顧牠長達2 個月之久。這段期間，貓頭鷹跟男主人培養出深厚的感情，也跟他們家的貓咪成為好朋友。等到傷好時，終於能展翅飛翔，男主人以為牠從此一去不回，沒想到竟然 常常帶著「禮物」回來報恩

 I could only find one other instance   where an owl befriended a cat, but I could nowhere find a picture or anything   about an owl bringing a mouse or rat to a cat. Unfortunately for the owl, the cat   just sniffed at the rat as she has never eaten something like that before. The   owl is however aggressive towards all other cats and will even swoop down and   attack them if they come to close to his nesting box in the tree. He however   accepts this cat even near his nesting box.

An injured crow that   he made friends with for about 3 days until the crow got better and started   making a terrible nuisance of himself. The crow  was released after about 3 months and hooked   up with another crow on the farm and is now living freely, and will most   probably start breeding this season.

What makes my owl so interesting to me is that it   is free to come and go as it pleases and lives as close to a natural life as   possible. I have in no way tried to train him or force myself onto him and   everything that he does comes natural. I am not in favour of keeping birds, or   any other animal for that matter, caged up and release all injured birds if at   all possible.