wild gooseberry

You’ll remember the little ducky I just posted about yesterday. The poor little one whose foot was so badly injured by a 3-barbed fishing lure with a rag hooked onto it. Here she is when we found her behind our house on September 27th…

We thought the barb had deformed her web between the middle and left toe. When we released her, the webbing was just a little pink lump under her foot. We haven’t seen her again…

Well, today, I  had a surprise!!! Sweetie has returned to us! She’s stayed away these couple of weeks, healing and mustering up her courage to come back to our yard. I thought I saw her this morning, but her foot looked so good, I thought it couldn’t be her. But how many duckies who looked like her could have the same injury? Turns out, it IS her!!! She has two little freckles on her middle toe of her left foot…and that’s what I looked for today.

There is a dent across her toes from the main part of the barb, but she’s doing great! The webbing has unfolded back out and except for some slight pinkness and the obvious hole, is looking wonderful. I tossed seeds and bread and popcorn out so she would know it’s ok to come back (and so I could get some pictures!)

Oh, welcome back, sweet Sweetie! It made my heart absolutely soar to see you today.

As most of you who read this little blog know, my sweet man and I live by a lovely little lake (ok, it’s probably technically a pond, but it has the word “lake” in its name!) We have ducks who often visit us and sometimes we put out seeds or old bread or stale popcorn (but that is a rare happening since we love our popcorn!)

A couple of weeks ago, we were in the kitchen and Joshua looked out of the window. “What is that duck doing?” he asked. I looked and it seemed like the duck was eating something grey.

“Is she eating another bird?!” he asked.

That’s sure what it looked like.

We went out to see. No, it wasn’t a bird…it was a piece of dirty rag. The poor ducky had a fishing lure stuck in her foot and one of the barbs had hooked onto an old rag and she was trying to get it off.

Wanting to help, but knowing the wrong move would get the duck to go back to the water, I prayed that I’d be able to catch her. Then I got some popcorn (not stale, but the good stuff. It was Kettle Corn from the Boy Scouts, freshly popped.) We tossed the popcorn out and I walked near the ducks (there were two there, the injured one and a friend.) She was thankfully a popcorn lover too and didn’t seem to notice that I was right there. Just then, I snagged her! I felt bad I tricked her, but I was able to catch her and hold on while she flapped her wings a few seconds. Joshua helped me hold onto her and we got her inside.

Further inspection of her foot showed us that this barb had been in a long time. Her foot had actually grown around two of the barbs and they were deeply embedded in her webbing. Poor baby.

Her toe was under the heavy main part from which the three barbs branched off. There were holes on the right side of her foot as well, from where the barbs had once been and she had been able to get them off of that side of her foot. Her foot must have been completely closed then.

It was a Sunday afternoon and the vet’s office was closed. They do have emergency 24 on-call service, but we tried to help on our own. We were able to get the rag and one barb clipped off, but it was apparent that we’d need more help. We called the vet and met her 10 minutes later.

I didn’t get a chance to take pictures at the vet’s office because it took all 4 of us (we two and the vet plus her assistant) to manipulate the duck’s foot in the right position and to use the tools and to keep the duck calm. The assistant held the ducky, I patted the duck’s head and help keep her calm, while the vet and Joshua got the remaining barbs out of her skin. It took half an hour. The vet said she would be fine to place back in the lake now since there was no sign of infection.

This ducky was SO good, such a sweet, calm little duck. We nicknamed her Sweetie.

After we returned home, we took Sweetie back to the lake. We were on our neighbor’s deck and took her out of our cat’s carrier. We had some more Kettle Corn ready and she munched  a few pieces and then headed back to the water. She had a bit of a limp when she walked, but she was no longer bogged down by that heavy lure and rag.

And then she did what duckies do…she swam away.

We’ve kept a lookout, but haven’t seen her since. Most likely, she’s too scared to come back (her friend took off when we nabbed her and we haven’t seen that duck in our yard since, either.) Maybe one day she’ll be brave enough to come back…maybe she’ll remember we have good popcorn!

Until then, Sweetie, good luck and thank you for being such a sweetie.

As far as the expense of the emergency visit, I told Joshua that this money would come back to us for our good deed. Somehow, we would get it back in unexpected ways. We were expecting a bill of over $100, but when we received it, it was considerably less ($77). The following week, $52 unexpectedly was returned to us in overpay on my Dillard’s credit card. I believe the other $25 will find its way to us. If not, then it was still worth it to help this sweet ducky lead the life she was meant to and except for man’s harm, would have already.

But also, for man’s kindness, she has been helped.