You know the events, seemingly minute, that remind you, who you are as a person and that you can make a difference?  That’s what this is about.

It was Thursday evening and Arden needed dropped off downtown for dance practice. She would be performing the next day with her dance group, Momentum, at the Arts Festival. It was busy and hectic, with all the road closures and vendor setting up for the next day. Feeling claustrophobic, I decided to run to the grocery in the hour that I had, thankful to get away from the chaos.

Heading back was more of the same and I was grateful for a friend helping facilitate pick-up with Arden as I frantically searched for non-blocked off parking spaces. The entire way home, she was troubled. There was a trio of ducks that were huddled together at the park. One with a limp, another severely injured and all wanting petting.

Arden made a prototype of a duck foot brace to try to help the duck walk.

They didn’t want petted, they wanted food.

We went home and with Joel and Cam in agreeance, we skipped the movie we were going to go see, grabbed a bin and headed back to wrangle some ducks. It went over fairly easily, much to amusement of Milestone 221 patrons and local law enforcement looking on. A cop joked with Joel, asking if he got enough ducks. Joel explaining that a couple were injured and we were going to take them to wild life rescue.

Except, it turns out that they weren’t wild ducks.

Their wings were too small for their bodies, they couldn’t fly. Or forage for food well enough to sustain themselves or defend themselves from predators. They were domesticated. Someone had raised them a short while then dumped them at the park. It turned out that they weren’t even full grown.

That night we kept them inside in a tote, feeding them watermelon. Joel stroked their heads until they fell asleep. They made the sweetest little duck snoring sounds. The next day was spent trying to research information. What they ate, how to make them more comfortable and trying to find assistance for a duck with an absolutely shredded foot.

They were always hungry, but who wouldn’t be after being abandoned? After each meal, they’d drink their fill of water, then cuddle together to nap. This went on multiple times a day, the two ducks snapping flies off the injured one. After a day in the backyard, Daisy, Woodbury and Nibbles, started getting more energy and felt at ease voicing their demands. The little, brown Rouen duck’s limp eased and he and large white Pekin got comfortable enough to hop up the steps to the door to quack for more water. At least a hundred worms and a lot of duck poop later, I was able to locate Lisa and her waterfowl rescue on Facebook.

The internet is such an amazing place!

On Saturday, after a much more challenging bout of ‘Catch the Ducks’, we drove 3 hours round trip to get them to the rescue. The owner, Lisa, was everything we could have hoped for. Caring, understanding of the fact that the three need to be together AND is able to care for them better than we could. Afterall, she meticulously picked maggots off of Daisy’s destroyed foot, took her to an aviary vet who diagnosed her with tapeworm and got the dead portion of the duck’s foot removed.

We made it back in time for a friend’s afternoon wedding. Stopping home for 15 minutes, only to throw on dressier clothes. I put my hair up in the car, convinced we were going to be late. Thankfully, I had recalled the time incorrectly from the invitation and we were actually early. The universe, giving us a serendipitous break.

If you would like to assist in helping little ducks, donations can be made via PayPal midohiowaterfowlrescue@gmail.com or Venmo @Lisa-Montgomery-98

Cam’s drawing of Daisy, Woodbury and Nibbles