Generally speaking I pick up road kill, but I also do some other errands while seeing to injured birds and other small animals (the other day I got to help a baby bunny!)
This morning, for example, I delivered some young birds to a rehabilitation centre. You see, the Humane Society doesn't have the means to rehabilitate all animals. Cats, dogs, and other domestics are one thing, but wildlife and birds have pretty different needs. Anyway, throughout the area there are a number of people who are registered rehabilitators and are able to care for specific needs of different birds and wildlife. Bird Rehab Centre Supervisor --sounds like a fun job. I like to think that I bring them the celebrities with drug addictions of the bird world. Anyway, they were pretty cute... I mean, not all young birds are cute... sometimes they're downright ugly... but these guys were sweet and soooo tiny.
Then in the afternoon I get a call to an... interestingly scented apartment in, shall we say, a more sketchy part of town. There were no parents to be seen. Apparently the official story is that these teens "found a duckling". However, other bits and pieces of the story were overheard from background giggles about the poor bird's siege and capture. They had then put it in their bathtub all day.
Seriously... Yes, ducklings can swim. But all day? I hope they don't apply that logic to their own children, "Oh sure, Billy loves to swim... yea, I think he's been out there for about 6 hours now... maybe I should check on him..."
Anyway, so I get the duckling and bring him back to my van. Really, I'm just supposed to put him in the back and drive on, but he's adorable and shivering. I take him out of the container and he snuggles right up to me. Cutest little thing I've ever seen.
I bring him back to the shelter just in time for the end of my shift, but I stick around while the lovely ladies at the front desk call around to different duck rehabbers in town... but... they were all full.
So here's the less-than-ideal part of reality. Without proper rehabilitation options, the duckling is unable to survive. Ducks are not one of those adoptive animals (unlike geese), and so to release it around other duck families hoping for a happy ending... actually results in them turning on and attacking the "outsider" duckling. Also, wood ducks can be very difficult to rehabilitate even with professionals, and the average person doesn't really have the time, means, or ability to do it themselves. Thus ultimately, if left without proper care, the duckling would slowly suffer and die. Anyway, to avoid such a slow, painful and inevitable ending, it's actually more humane to euthanize the little guys. And so... without a rehabber in town, I was told that I'd have to say goodbye to my little duckling.
Confession: In the briefest flash I thought my eyes were going to tear up.
OBVIOUSLY I'd broken the rule of not getting attached.
So, while carrying the little guy around the shelter with me and making enquiries, after some time and with some help we were able to find a duck rehabber who was willing to take him.
The catch: this place was well out of town and I couldn't take him there as a Humane Society employee.
Thankfully, not only am I a Humane Society employee, but I am also a Person. And, as a Person, I was perfectly able to take Eddie on a little road trip. And so I punched my time card out and headed to my car, Eddie in tow.
And thus, for a few hours before taking him to the rehab place, I came to own a pet duck.
And I loved him.I didn't get home until about 10pm, it turned out to be just over an hour trip there and back. Along the way with my sister, I glanced at the clock and then at Eddie snuggled in her arm.
"That's weird..."
"Hm?"
"...He would have been dead for two and a half hours now".
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