HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- A 2-year-old barred owl recuperated at the Carolina Raptor Center after an unfortunate run-in with a car in Winston-Salem late last month and will be ready to go out and spread its wings soon.

NCSHP Trooper L. C. Mendenhall rescued the owl off a Forsyth County road after receiving a 911 call.  

"When you have a person like the trooper who sees the bird on the side of the road and feels compelled to give it the same consideration as a human, it's really exciting to us,” said Associate Exec. Director Michele Miller Houck says.

Wednesday, Dr. Dave Scott manipulated the owl’s broken wing and cleaned up some of its sutures during a quick physical therapy session. The whole process took about 10 minutes. He says a similar injury for humans would take up to a year to rehab.

 “This guy’s going to do it in about 3 months,” Dr. Scott says.

The owl currently has a metal pin implant, which will stay in for the next 4-5 weeks.

As part of recovery, the owl currently lives in a “condo.” The Raptor Center will move it to a bigger flight cage within the next two months, and eventually re-release it into the wild in cooler temperatures.

The snowy owl is expected to be set free in Burlington, Vermont this week.

You can keep up on the owl's progress and prognosis through the center-developed RaptorMed.