Duck Squad

So...I saved a duck.
Helped save a duck is probably the better wording as it was Greg who was the mastermind behind the operation. Here is what happened:

Greg and I were driving to the office after work, very late I might add since we had a super later whale watch going out that we were trying to fill. So it's about 6 pm and we are driving down the only four lane road in all of Juneau when a little tiny baby duckling, about the size of a baseball, runs out in front of us and tries to cross traffic. Greg swerved and just missed it and thought things were done when, upon seeing in his rear view mirror what is was that he had in fact dodged, he suddenly became very concerned and declared, "that was a baby duck!!!!!!!!! oh my gosh, that was a baby duck!!" I tried to make him feel better by assuring him the duck was probably ok since he didn't hit it, but he was not to be consoled. He pulled a quick U-turn at the light and parked on the side of the road, ran across all four lanes of traffic, and proceeded to lunge after this tiny, scared, baby duck, almost getting hit by cars in the process.

Once safe in the car he placed the duck in my hands and, realized the gravity of the situation, "what am i going to do with this duck?", he called his mom. She advised that we take the little duck to "swampy acres" a local farm that takes care of baby animals. She had to remind Greg that he probably shouldn't keep the duck since, "it probably wouldn't be happy in your home, it needs other ducks", even though he had decided that perhaps it was fate that he saved the duck and maybe he should continue to take care of it.

We took the duck to the office so we could finish the paper work we were originally on our way to take care of. When I asked Greg if he would take the papers so I could carry the duck in he said, "you are going to carry it? LUCKY!" So I gave him the duck and took the papers in, thoroughly amused by the amount of passion he portrayed for this duck. Since our bosses have a cat we decided that we would take turns holding the duck while the other did paper work. Greg did his paper work first, then we switched. When I gave the duck to him he took it the couch, plopped down, placed the little thing in the top of his vest to keep it warm, and contentedly pet its little head and convinced his friend Robby that it wasn't geeky of him to save the duck. Seeing how in love he was and realizing we would be getting rid of it so soon I offered to drive to the farm so he could hold the duck which he agreed to all too readily.

The ride out to the farm was kind of long and spent mostly just looking at the duck and talking about how Robby probably actually liked the duck when he saw it and didn't expect it to be as cute as it was. The lady at the farm came to the door after much knocking and amusingly took the duck from us, declaring it was a "duckling", not "baby duck" or "little chick" as Greg had been calling it, and said she would put it with the other baby birds and see how it did. Reluctant to leave Greg asked, "well, can we at least see where it's going to go?" Biting my lip, I smiled being actually a little curious myself but still completely amused by the extent to which Greg cared for and was passionate about this "duckling". She did let us see where she put it, in a trough with baby turkey's who were twice his size and ugly looking, which didn't really make us feel any better about the situation. We however thanked her and went home. When I asked if he was going to call and check on it he cooly said, "no" as if he could have cared less about what happened to it, and we left.

And so, we saved a baby duck, well, a duckling.