A Duckling Tale

It was a beautiful sunny summer day and everyone was out and about. So, I took my mom for a walk -- because that's what good children do -- at the seawall that outlines the beautiful and unaffordable city of Vancouver, in Canada.

Our stroll was unravelling itself very pleasantly and I was watching the million-dollar white sail boats and other scenic features along the shore when I spotted a mom duck with its ducklings and a threatening crow nearby. If you didn't know it, crows eat little ducklings!

At first, I got curious about why the mom duck didn't leave the spot where the crow was insistently threatening her ducklings and then I noticed that something was not quite right. One of the little ducklings could not leave the water and join its family on the muddy rocky beach. It just kept swimming in circles on the same spot. And then I figured out - its little leg was stuck underwater!

It took me a few minutes to decide if I should intervene or not, after all, as we all know, most of the times, it's not a good idea to temper with the wildlife. But, I made up my mind. When I told my mother what I was going to do, she didn't think twice, she just screamed in pitiful voice:

-- Oh no, poor thing! Go, go and help the little duckling already!

I rolled my eyes and told her:

-- I'm going, mom! Just calm down!

Everyone knows that we should never panic in stressful situations, but just keep calm and assess the problem in order to find the best solution. And that's what I tried to do as I made my way through the muddy rocky beach towards the duck family scaring the crow away.

As I approached them, the mom duck guided its ducklings away from the scary giant that I was, leaving behind her little duckling stuck in the water. You see now, it may seem cruel, but life in the wild is brutal and often a parent has to choose to abandon one of their children in order to save the others. And that's what this dutiful mom duck did.

When I finally reached the little duckling, I thought his leg was stuck on a rock, but as I put my hand in the water and felt my way along the little duckling's leg, I realized something that I really was not expecting -- its leg was stuck on a mussel!

You may or may not know what mussels looks like, so I will describe them to you. They are a small shellfish that fix themselves on rocks and open their shells when they need to eat and close them when they want to protect themselves.

So, what happened here was that while the little duckling was swimming to the beach, its claw touched the mussel when its shell was open and then the mussel quickly closed it to protect itself trapping the ducklings claw in it.

I will confess that I was a little scared because I couldn't see what was in the murky water. What if there were other mussels there or a crab or even a sea serpent? But, I decided to be brave because we have to be brave when we know it's necessary. So, I tried to pull the little duckling's leg out of the mussel, but the mussel wouldn't let go. And then, I tried to open its shell, but the muscle was stronger than me! Finally, l realized that I would have to take the mussel out of the water if I were to succeed. So, I carefully twisted both the mussel and duckling around and managed to dislodge the mussel from its rock bed and ended up with the little duckling and its attached mussel in my hands.

I made the difficult walk through the muddy rocky beach back to the sea wall where my visibly worried mother awaited, now with an elderly couple who stopped to check what was going on. I tried to open the mussel's shell using my key, but it was just shut tight and it would not open. The elderly couple handled me a coin to see if that could help, but again, the shell remained shut tight. Once again, I had to make a difficult decision, I would have to break the mussel's shell to save the little duckling.

So, I grabbed a rock and carefully started tapping on the shell slowly breaking it down. I knew that the mussel would die in the process and I kept questioning myself why the ducklings life was more important than the mussel's? I could not find any better answer than the duckling looked cute and the mussel didn't. And such is in the human world, but we all know that -- appearances do matter.

Eventually, I managed to release the little duckling's leg and threw the remains of the mussel back into the sea. And finally, it was time to return the little beaky fellow back to its family. But now, there was a new challenge -- the mom duck took its ducklings into the water and they were swimming away from us!

So, I had to run against time to come as closer to them as I could and release the little duckling so it could swim back to its family. Trying to walk fast through the slippery muddy rocky beach was not easy, but I finally made it, getting my nice shoes filthy in the process. When I released the little duckling into the water, it just swam right back to me. As, I tried it again and the same thing happened and, for my despair, I realized that the little duckling had bonded with me!

Now, if you don't know what that means, it means that the little duckling thought that I was its new mom! For a few seconds, I contemplated the possibility of adopting the little duckling and having a happy life with my new mascot. But, my dreams were suddenly crashed by the realization that people should not keep wild animals as pets and that even if I tried, my apartment was not pet friendly. So, there was only one thing I could do.

I put the little duckling back into the water and quickly run away from it in hopes that its mom would come back for it. The little fellow tried to follow me again, but its little legs were just too small and could not take it to far. Unfortunately, the mom duck seemed to be scared to come back still, but the crow was not. When I noticed that the crow had returned, I tried to come back to scare it away, but I was too far now and I just wouldn't make it in time. My heart was breaking with the foresight of what would happen in the next few seconds.

But then, just when all hope was lost and the crow was about to snatch the little duckling away, its mom suddenly stepped in and scared to crow away and the little duckling joined her and its siblings and away they swam! Even though I did not get a thank you or a goodbye, the whole thing tasted as a delicious slice of life!

(A real story)