Walking along a wooded trail with her dog, a woman in Pennsylvania recently noticed something strange. Her dog wouldn’t stop sniffing anxiously at a specific pile of leaves. She knew there must be an animal in there — but who? 

Though the woman could see rustling in the leaves, the feathered visitor was almost completely disguised by the brown forest floor.

“Can you see it?” Raven Ridge Wildlife Center later wrote in a Facebook post about the event. “How about now?”

Soon, the woman realized: the mysterious animal was an injured great horned owl.

Unsure what to do, the woman texted pictures of the owl to Raven Ridge Wildlife Center. Rescuers on the other end saw the photos and knew they had to act fast.

“It is always a red flag when an owl is found grounded and fails to fly away when approached,” the center wrote in the post. “Especially when it’s in the middle of day.”

Volunteers soon arrived at the scene, gingerly picked up the owl and brought her to Raven Ridge for further assessment.

Initially, rescuers feared the worst.

“The owl couldn’t stand, [was] shivering, [couldn’t] open an eye, [was] falling over, cold, dehydrated and dazed,” the center wrote in the post. “We started emergency triage of a warm incubator, fluids, medications and constant monitoring every 30 minutes.”

Wildlife rehabilitator Tracie Young can’t confidently conclude what happened to the owl but suspects he was sprayed in the face by a skunk. Young hadn’t seen many owls in such a state, but she was nevertheless eager to help.

“I love those types of challenges that come in,” Young told The Dodo.

Eventually, thanks to the diligence of so many animal experts, the resilient owl made a full recovery.

Rescuers excitedly took the healthy owl to a wooded area and released her back into the wilderness.

“It was very clear when we opened the crate door [that] she knew exactly where she was,” Raven Ridge wrote in a Facebook post about the release. “[She] wasted no time taking off into the trees above.”