Florence Nightingale kept an owl in her pocket. It was named Athena.

Nightingale saved this owlet as a baby, after it fell from it’s nest at the Parthenon in Athens. For the next five years, she would care and tend to this owl, carrying it everywhere in the most convenient traveling case available - a pocket. The owl would become a trademark, of sorts, although a slightly dangerous one: it had a tendancy to peck at strangers.

It only lived five years, even with Ms. Nightingale as her keeper. After being posted to the Crimea for her nursing duties, Nightingale left Athena behind in the attic, thinking that she’d be able to fend for herself on local mice. Athena was found later, starved. A heartbroken Nightingale had her stuffed.

Nowadays, you can no longer keep owls as pets. To do so is illegal.