Uhuru — not just the sound of an owl, but also the Swahili word for freedom. The freedom everyone desires so much— animals included.

In the early 1990s, Rineke lived with her family in Naivasha, Kenya. There were a few tall trees behind the house, and an owl’s nest sat in one of them. One morning, an owlet was lying beneath the tree; the nest had become too crowded, and the chick had been pushed out, breaking its wing in the fall. Rineke took the owlet to the local vet. He laughed heartily but managed to set the wing and tape it up. The chick was cared for indoors for a month until the tape could be removed. Rineke placed the young owl in the fenced-off vegetable garden so that other wildlife couldn’t immediately snatch it up. The chick clacked its beak, and Mom and Dad owl immediately swooped down toward it. Dad chased Rineke out of the vegetable garden, diving at her and scratching her head with his talons. Clearly, further feeding wasn’t necessary; the parents would handle that themselves from then on. Two weeks later, the owlet was able to fly on its own, heading off toward freedom. Uhuru! The family remained welcome visitors in the garden.