Guy Leaving for Work Spots Little Fluff Ball on the Ground in Need of Help

By Caitlin Jill Anders for the DoDo

Dan Jordan was leaving for work one morning when he saw a fluffy baby sitting all alone in his front yard. He got out of his car to investigate and discovered it was a baby great horned owl who had likely fallen out of its nest.

Immediately, Jordan’s plan for the day changed. Instead of heading off to work, he carefully scooped up the baby owl and drove him to Owl's Nest Sanctuary for Wildlife, determined to get him help.

“He was in good condition,” director Kris Porter told The Dodo. “They fall like little fluff balls. We get lucky that a lot of them don’t get damaged at all.”

Many sanctuaries would take the baby in and raise it until it was strong enough to be released, but Owl's Nest Sanctuary for Wildlife operates a little differently. Their goal is always to get the baby owls reunited with their moms, so Porter and her team headed back to the property to begin searching.

The property was an entire acre of oak trees, so it took some perseverance to find the right tree. Finally, the group found a nest on the ground — and when they looked up, they saw another fluffy little butt hanging on for dear life.

After retrieving the second baby, the team built a platform high up in the tree so they could return them there safely. The goal was to make it easy for the babies to be reunited with their mom, who was actually watching from nearby the entire time.

“We knew she was there because she was making defensive hoots at me on the side, so I knew she was in the area,” Porter said.

Once the platform was built, the team needed someone to get the babies up onto it. Luckily, Jordan owns his own landscaping company, Creek Bank Lawncare, so he was just the man for the job.

Once everyone had cleared out, the mother owl swooped onto the platform and was reunited with her babies. It was the happiest ending anyone could have asked for and another successful rescue for Porter and her team.

“This is the heart of what we do,” the sanctuary wrote on Facebook. “It’s not about bringing them in. It’s not about raising every baby start to finish. It’s about keeping families together whenever humanly possible. That reunion? That’s the win.”

Compliments of the DoDo: Published on March 13, 2026 at 2:50 PM