What’s with owls?

Did these birds become so popular because of those Harry Potter stories? Are these rapacious carnivores so cute and cuddly that everyone loves them? Or have we always loved them because they say “Who”? And did advertisers just discover them now?

As a writer, I have to be an observer, mostly of human nature and not owls! So, I’ve discovered that suddenly something weird is going on: Owls might be replacing cats and dogs as human beings’ favorite literary animals. Why? What’s changed?

Take commerc...