I was feeding some ducks yesterday evening in a subdivision pond.I noticed a little dark object by the edge of the water.I thought it was a pine cone but something told me to go check it out.

When I got real close- I bent down and thought it was a freshly dead baby. So I was very sad. Then I noticed it looked like it might be breathing-the duckling opened an eye and in a high pitched frantic voice said "PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP peep peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep"and sprang into the water.

The duckling swam close to the edge and headed for a little concrete embankment 6 feet down from where he jumped in.So I stepped down and managed to stand behind the duckling and got him to climb back up to the grass where I could grab him.

We then drove the car around to the other part of the subdivision where there were two more lakes. I asked some people if they had seen the brood of baby ducklings. I asked Heavenly Father to help the baby and to help me find it's family.

A Mom and her young son that were walking from the pool said they saw the babies 30 minutes ago heading towards some bushes.

So I started walking around the pond/lake and saw a family outside in their yard which backed up to the pond. A young girl (Savanna, about 9) said she knew where they were. So I handed her the baby, and off she went, running in her white summer dress and flip flops with the wind blowing back her long golden hair and baby duckling bobbing along in her tight-gripped hand.

Then I noticed she was heading for the wrong group of ducks so we called out to her. I ran after her around the pond and we met. She said the family was on the other side of the pond- too far for her to go.
So I took the duckling in my hand and walked all the way around the lake to the family of ducks. There were about 12 ducklings and a Mama sitting on a large grate at the end of the pond on a pile of pine needles.

I gently tossed the baby duckling down into the water, and he swam straight to the Mama and ducklings. The Mama duck nibbled the baby and the other ducklings greeted the wayfaring duckling. We noticed the lost duckling looked smaller than the others.

As I stood there- the little girl came back to watch. We noticed another mama duck and her ducklings swimming across the way- and those babies looked younger- so we thought we had the baby with the wrong group!

So we decided to scoop up the duckling again. But alas! Where did the duckling go? He was no where to be seen. Savanna and I frantically searched the water edge.

Lo and behold- the mama duck stood up and there was the tiniest duckling! He was under the mama.

Relieved, we gently picked up the baby again, and ran around to the other duck family- but oh no! Those duckling were even bigger! So we did a 180 and ran back to the grate with the 12 ducklings.

We placed the duckling once again with the mama and he snuggled up to the next baby duckling as fast as he could. As we stood there watching, some of the ducklings decided to take an outing up the embankment to the grass. mama duck got up and followed. What would the baby do? He was so weak!

Mama must have decided to tell one of the other ducklings to stay with the frail baby. The tiny baby snuggled up to an older duckling and the two of them stayed put while the others went on an outing.

As Savanna and I watched, the sun started to set. The other Duck families all started coming to this part of the lake. They all greeted each other, and now there were about 28 ducklings all together and 10 adults.

As the sun set, mama and the 12 ducklings went back to the pine needles and settled in for the evening.Savanna and I walked back to her home and said our good-byes. We were very happy with our duck rescue expedition.

As I opened my car door, I glanced back to look at the ducks with the last few golden rays of the setting sun reflecting off the surface of the lake. I knew the baby was no longer alone in the hot sun, weak and vulnerable- two lakes away from his family.

I knew Savanna, the baby duckling and I would go to sleep that night with a happy heart and a smile on our faces and a thank-you prayer to our Father in Heaven.

Amy rescued a Baby Duckling today June 27 2008