Bonded
United not only by species but by circumstance, three ducks weathered a tumultuous storm of uncertainly that could so easily have claimed them if kindness had not.
“Gosh” we mused, “the roads here are like a labyrinth. Thankfully we have a GPS”, our heads darting this way and that as we headed towards our quarry.
Then sighting same just ahead, near the corner as we were instructed they would be found, we gave a little shout.
Three clearly bonded and cheery ducks sat making idle quack quack as if waiting for their uber to arrive.
Without a GPS of their own to navigate their way there it was sorrily evident they had been abandoned in that heavily housed area. What touched us deeply though was the human protagonist in this story and their refusal to take “no” for an answer each time they reached out to the various authorities who generally assist abandoned or stray animals.
Such a lack of will to assist the birds highlights how their kind has jumped dry from our animal protection legislation and so too the thoughts of many. But that hastily erect shelter, a nature strip littered with delicious and enticing ducky treats, and the call to Edgar’s Mission, said not all.
With the entire rescue done and dusted in under ten minutes it was not long before they have jumped into our hearts and the back of the kindness van.
And so now with three awesome names; Moby Duck (the large Pekin male), Quackie Chan (the aptly named very chatty female Pekin) and Man Drake (the dashedly handsome Cayuga male made so by his shiny black feathers with just a hint of green sheen) they too have a future made bright by the simple action of human kindness.
United not only by species but by circumstance they had just weathered a tumultuous storm of uncertainly that could so easily have claimed them if kindness had not.
Seeing such vulnerability in animals made so by their form, (remember their wild cousins can so readily fly and flee from predators but not so such domesticated and selectively bred ones), something which is compounded more even by the disposability with which society sees them, should be a potent reminder to us all that a more just cannot happen without our commitment to it.
Bonded too with this thought comes the notion that we cannot expect that world to be kind if we are not.