Peninsula animal control officer revives seemingly dead owl with hairdryer

A seemingly dead owl was revived with the use of a blow dryer by Animal Control in Palo Alto on Thursday, an officer posted on Facebook. Click through the gallery for more California animal stories. A seemingly dead owl was revived with the use of a blow dryer by Animal Control in Palo Alto on Thursday, an officer posted on Facebook. Click through the gallery for more California animal stories. Photo: Palo Alto Animal Control Photo: Palo Alto Animal Control Image 1 of / 63 Caption Close Peninsula animal control officer revives seemingly dead owl with hairdryer 1 / 63 Back to Gallery

Please, please don't try this at home.

A Palo Alto resident called Animal Control on Thursday morning when they discovered a bird in their backyard, Palo Alto Animal Control wrote in a Facebook post.

It turned out to be a nesting screech owl, but he wasn't in great shape: At one point, after being brought in to Animal Control, the officer dealing with the little owl thought he had perished during the ordeal.

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"At one point we thought he had passed on," they wrote.

But Animal Control then turned to a surprising tool in their arsenal: a blow dryer, which revived the little owl with its gentle heat.

"After being warmed up with a run-of-the-mill hair dryer, and placed in a warm incubator, he was sent off to the wildlife center where he is now resting comfortably," they wrote.

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The situation seemed unusual even to the officer involved.

"I never thought the reason I'd be late for an important meeting with the boss, was because I was 'blow-drying an owl,'" they wrote, "but here we are."

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at filipa.ioannou@sfgate.com and follow her on Twitter

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