Owl -- a good-luck animal

   In Japan, owl is called "fukuro."  (who-coo-row)  Originally, fukuro is spelled as 梟 in Kanji character, but we sometimes use other characters for the bird.  It looks like this : 不苦労 (fu-ku-ro).  This usage of characters is not official one, and it is a kind of a word play.  不 means 'no- / non- , 苦労 means 'hardship.'  So when we use the combination of these characters, it means 'No hardship'.  So an owl is considered as a good-luck animal.  
   This summer, my son and I were invited to a water park to spend time with our friends.  The hotel we stayed at had a small zoo in their venue, and I found a huge owl in a cage. It was called 'hawk owl.'   The size of its eye was about 1 1/4 and it looked like a beautiful marble.  When I noticed, my son was pulling my sleeve since he wanted to go see other animals...I guess I was looking at the bird longer than I thought... Anyway, it was very attractive animal and I felt as if it gave me some mystical power to me.  
   After I came back from the short trip.  I started making an owl.  The Amigurumi owl in the picture above doesn't look like anything that I saw at the zoo, but I made this owl hoping the person who would adopt this owl will have a good luck by the power of this enchanting animal.  

*** The word Amigurumi is a created word by the combination of two words.  Ami - Originally -  Amu (verb).  It means to knit/crochet.  And Gurimi- is a part of a word Nui-gurumi.  It means a stuffed animal which is made of sewn fabric.  So, Amigurumi means knitted/crocheted stuffed animals / dolls.  ***