Utah Family Faces Unexpected Choice When They See Clump Of Feathers Holding Up Drive-Thru Line
Tracy Jester pulled up to a drive-thru in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was sitting in the car with her husband and kids, ready for a snack, but the line wasn’t moving.
At first, she thought it was just a slow Sunday crowd. But then she noticed that people weren’t just waiting, they were standing around, waving their hands, trying to shoo something away.
Curiosity got the better of Tracy, and she stepped out of the car. That’s when she saw it: a red-tailed hawk, lying on the ground, huge and majestic, but clearly stuck.
The bird couldn’t move, and no one was helping. Tracy’s heart squeezed.
It was one of those moments where you feel like the world is asking you to do something, and you just can’t ignore it. Tracy felt that tug in her chest, sharing in an interview:
“[I] got a feeling like, ‘OK, I gotta do something here,’” Jester said. “It didn’t sit well with us to just kind of drive away.”
She called every wildlife rescue she could think of. Most were closed, it being late on a Sunday.
Panic started to creep in, and Tracy almost gave up. But then, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah got back to her.
Even though it was almost an hour away and they were about to close, the staff agreed to stay late for this one bird. Tracy was so relieved.
Her husband carefully wrapped the hawk in his sweater, and they placed her in the car. Butterscotch, as they decided to name her, stayed still the entire way, almost like she knew she was finally safe. Tracy shared:
“You could just tell, I think, in this little animal’s eyes that it must have known that we were the people that were going to come and help her out.”
The hawk seemed to behave more like a dog, like it was a family pet, as Tracy said:
“You would have thought it was a golden retriever.”
The ride was quiet and tense but filled with a strange, sweet sense of hope. When they arrived at the rehabilitation center, the rescuers took one look and told the family Butterscotch was in bad shape. She might not survive.
Tracy felt her stomach tighten, but she also felt proud. They had tried, and that mattered.
She left the center that day, feeling unsure but knowing they had given the little hawk a fighting chance.
Tracy called the center every week for updates, always anxious to hear how Butterscotch was doing. Slowly, she learned the hawk was recovering from parasites and gaining strength.
Every update brought relief and a little sigh of happiness. Tracie shared:
“The last day that I called, I spoke to someone [who] said, ‘You know, if you had not brought her in the day that you did, if you didn’t call, this girl would not be here at all.’”
And then, after four weeks, the good news came: Butterscotch was ready to go back to the wild. Tracy was so happy to know that the hawk they had saved was finally going home.
Since then, she’s spotted a red-tailed hawk hanging out on a streetlight near her house. She often wonders if it’s Butterscotch, remembering that first meeting at the drive-thru.
Either way, seeing the hawk always brings a smile to her face and a little warmth to her heart.
