Helllllo Again Stumbler! Snuzzy is your endless supply of cute and fuzzy.
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Here’s a fuzzy little snuzzy that popped into my inbox earlier today:
Joel is a loan officer at Sterling Bank in Spokane, WA. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk.
The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.
Joel worried all night how the mamma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching.
Tuesday morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off! The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below.
He couldn’t watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs to the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall. Joel looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump! He quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck quacked at him and the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement. Safe and sound, he set it by the mamma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from its painful leap.
One by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family below. Each time Joel hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came to a standstill. Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by their approving mother.
At this point Joel realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the Spokane River. The onlooking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought an empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled them, with the mother’s approval, and loaded them up into the white cardboard container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the Spokane River, as the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight.
As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water’s edge, the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies towards the water and to their mother after their adventurous ride.
All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to mamma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if to say: ‘See, we did it! Thanks for all the help!’
What a charming story. And I do love a happy ending! It reminds me of the classic children’s book from the 50s, “Make Way for Ducklings,” set in Boston Common park near my first home. There are many Canadian Geese on the golf course and by the pond in front of my health club. In the spring I love watching their babies strut around. They look like puffy tennis balls with long legs.
Brave ducks, aren’t they? Good thing the human was there to save them.
Looks like a caring place to work!! If I lived there–I would bank there just for this kind of caring act!
Nice story …. but in the pics there are 10 ducklings not 9….. hope a stray one didn’t get roped into the wrong family !!!
Well done to all concerned….compassion at its best.
Thanks to Joel and the secretaries for being so caring. A delightful ending to the story.
Haven’t heard about the Spokane ducks? Check them out. I dare you not to say “Awwwww!” http://snuzzy.com/spokane-ducks/
RT @SuzanneTina: Haven’t heard about the Spokane ducks? Check them out. I dare you not to say “Awwwww!” http://snuzzy.com/spokane-ducks/
but there are 10 ducklings in the last picture..?
That is so horribly cute that I think my heart just exploded!
I love that the momma duck approved. Usually it seems most animals don’t trust humans even when they are trying to help.
One time a family of ducklings fell into a sewer and the mom duckling was frantic and couldnt save them. She had two with her and gave up and went to the lake. We spent a hour or so getting them out of the sewer and then found her and the other 2 ducklings in the lake and released em. She hurried over and took em under her wing.
Forsooth! Yonder portrait appearseth to have been modified, photoshoppically!
I’ve seen film of this somewhere. I think a news crew turned up as he was catching the little critters