Saturday, February 7, 2009

Karen to the Rescue!

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet! I mean, I was pretty much a hero. Really saved the day and all. If I did post this just let me know. Even if I have already told this story, it's worth telling again. Since I am a hero and all.

So there I was, walking down the hill from the Benson Building on one mighty fine summer afternoon heading to my car. Walking past a drain gate I hear some peeping. I pull the grate off, hop on down, and lean down into the large hole. Definitely peeping. I call BYU police to ask what I should do and they say that they are the ones that take care of it and will be there shortly. I hunker down to wait for them to show them where the duckies are. At some point I see a friend coming down the hill and I flag him down and ask if he by any chance keeps a flashlight in his truck. Being the boy scout trained guy that he is, he pulls a mag-lite out from under the front seat. I go back, lean down into the hole, and see two little ducks wading in the water.

It was too far down to reach them even if they hadn't run away when I would get close. There was a constant trickle of water so it was too slippery to climb down. I found an old door and blocked off most of where the trickle came in and where the ducks must have slipped down. The drain pipe was pretty broad and was blocked up at the far end. It went back a good few dozen yards and then there was a cement wall.

The mommy and daddy ducks heard their lost babies and would come close to the drain and quack at them. The babies heard and would peep back. It was cute, but made me want to save them all the more. As some other people were walking to their cars they would stop and wait with me. Some stayed and were really trying to help, while others were just interested in the show. A girl called her mother who lived a few blocks away and she brought two pool nets that we used to try and fish the ducklings out of the hole with. A physics student went back to the Eyring and brought back a whole bag of bagel crumbs that were left over from something. Before that we had tried to lure them with a few cake crumbs that some other girl had left over from her lunch.

We fished one out and set it free next to its family and after mom and dad had checked the little guy out, they and the 9 or 10 other babies waddled back down to the duck pond. Much to our surprise, we still heard two little duckies peeping from the tunnel. After much further efforts, mostly on my part and that of the aforementioned mother and daughter of the pool-net fame, we did manage to get the other two out all at once. Since the rest of the flock had already gone back to the duck pond, we carried the little peepers down there in the pool nets. We let them go and they ran back to their family!

Like I said. I'm pretty much a hero. The police never did show up. After several hours, we called them to ask about whether or not they were actually coming. Apparently there was some people-related incidents that necessitated the presence of the BYU cops. After we got the ducks out I saw a momma deer and her two fawns come out and start to eat the bushes. It was cute too! And that's my story. You know, the one where I'm a hero... Yeah... cool... hmmm...

Big gulps eh... welp... see you later...


















































































1 comment:

  1. Way to go Super Karen! It comes naturally with our motherly instincts...saving babies. When I used to help Dad on the hog farm and sows would roll onto their babies and you would hear this loud screaming from the baby pigs the men would ignore it and I couldn't stand it until I had prodded the mother off the babies that were getting squished.

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