Hoot! Hoot! I just adore owls.

It must be their large all-knowing eyes, their fluffed-up feathers or the strange way they seem able to turn their head through 360 degrees (it's only 270 by the way, but who's counting).

We have kept chickens at Cobweb Castle but owls just seem more serene and laid back. They don't go in for that clucking nonsense or scratching at dirt in the vain hope of discovering a tasty grub.

Owls sit on fences, in trees or live in barns like regal rulers surveying their minions beneath.

Occasionally, when they feel a little peckish, they might spread their wings and swoop down to pluck a luckless mouse from the grass to turn into tea.

I once made the mistake of mentioning how much I coveted an owl to Mrs Nurden. So she bought me... an owl experience.

That was why I ended up making new friends with a few feathered fellows called Dawn, Dusk, Beasty and Lenny at the Kent Owl Academy at Kent Life, Maidstone.

It was a wondrous feeling watching these majestic creatures flying silently through the air to pick meat from my leather-clad fingers. I could see myself on the moors with birds of prey at my command.

Mrs Nurden also decided to pay for the Boy Childs (grandsons) to go along. Big mistake. They soon became enamoured with owning an owl. So much so, that as soon as we got home they set about converting Cobweb Castle's garage into an owl sanctuary.

They hatched plans for electronic gates, freezers for the day-old chicks (yuk) and filled shopping bags with detritus no self-respecting raptor should be without, namely leaves, stones and bits of bark. The bags are now in the kitchen in hopeful anticipation that an owl will soon join our menagerie of four goldfish and an ageing cat.

Mrs Nurden is not impressed and I admit I am now having second thoughts about sharing the west wing with a carnivorous nocturnal feathered hunting machine.

But the boys are adamant we need one and have been scouring e-Bay for likely purchases.

As a wise old owl once said: "Be careful of what you wish for. You might just get it..."