#DeputiesLoveBabyOwls and so do we

A sheriff’s deputy in Colorado stumbled upon an owlet in the road yesterday, and the two had a pretty long, pretty adorable chat.

Deputy Sophie Berman found the baby owl standing in the dirt as she was patrolling a campground near Boulder. Faced such fuzzball adorableness, she did what any of us would do. She said, “Hi, what’s up?” The owl responded with cute clicking sounds and some even cuter head swiveling. Seriously, it was like something out of a Disney movie.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Department then posted pics of the encounter on their social media accounts with what might be the most perfect hashtag we’ve ever seen #DeputiesLoveBabyOwls. Awwwwwww.

The adorable baby is a Northern Saw Whet Owl, which (believe it or not) is considered “highly nocturnal and seldom seen.” They’re one of the most common types of owls, but they usually only come out at night. (Nights owls…get it?) Um, cute baby owl, I guess you didn’t get the memo on that, did you?

Northern Saw Whet Owls are also said to be “bursting with attitude” and are basically known as forest badasses. Now that we can sort of see. The baby owl in question might have been tiny, but wasn’t at all intimidated by the police officer who, let’s face it, probably looked like a towering, giant to the owl. Baby owl, throw some of that confidence over here in our direction, k? We’re thinking you might just be the Beyonce of the bird world.

It’s no wonder that news of the police officer and the owl went viral almost immediately. I mean, who doesn’t love a sassy baby animal? Social media blew up, prompting one Twitter user to tweet, “America really needed this owl today huh?”

Yes. Yes, we did.

Luckily, the officer’s chat with the owl was captured on film. We might be watching this all day.

(Images via Twitter.)