We love our job!
There are times when it can be tough being a vet nurse, vet or animal advocate. But then there are those magical moments that happen every so often, and make it all so worth while!
Recently, 4 young girls came in to the clinic and said “Excuse me but what shall we do with this?”. One of the girls held up a small, wet and very dazed duckling. They had been playing by the stream in Waltham, and came across a boy throwing stones at a Mother duck and her three ducklings (you may be surprised at how often this seems to happen.) The duckling had been hit on the head with a stone and lost consciousness. They had fished it out from the water and brought it in to the clinic.
Luckily, the duckling was fine. when they arrived, he was sitting upright, and aside from being cold and frightened, he had no permanent injuries. we popped ducky into a box with a heat lamp, and a small food bowl with soaked cat biscuits floating in abowl of water. (Ducks love soggy cat biscuits. If worms and insects aren’t available, then soft cat food floating in water has enough movement that they get gobbled up like swimming insects!)
When we returned, Ducky was happily taking a bath in his food bowl!
One night of recovery at one of our vet nurses houses, and we could see that ducky needed to rejoin the outside world.
It was a beautiful Christchurch day and so we set off down to the stream to try and find Mum and her two other babies. After half an hour of searching, our hopes were plummeting. We were really beginning to think that we would never see her again, when just around the corner we came across the little group.
As soon as mum saw us she paddled away as fast as she could and quacked for her ducklings to follow. We stopped, opened the box that we were carrying, and held up Ducky. There was a brief moment and Ducky let a “cheep”…. Mum stopped… she turned around with a little ‘quack”… and then suddenly it was all on! quackings and cheepings from all, as mum swam over to the bank to greet us….
There are some moments in life that can never be re-created…
That’s why we have cell phones with video cameras!
Here is the reunion! (It’s quick, but kind of cute!)
Sit. Roll over. Good blog. 