WARNING: Heart-warming Wildlife Story

Early Mom's Day for lucky duck

By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News Staff

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=7a7787fe-31a9-4bae-a23b-9cc63aca6c94 (SEE ARTICLE FOR PICTURE)
MANCHESTER – A mother duck was reunited with two of her little ones after they were rescued from a storm drain, thanks to the quick reaction of some folks who work in the Millyard.
Joni Castrogiovanni, owner of Not So Plain Janes on Dow Street, said the drama unfolded Thursday afternoon while some of her employees were outside taking a break. They were admiring the sight of a mother duck followed by 11 ducklings -- and then watched in dismay as two of the babies tumbled through a grate in the middle of Commercial Street.
"Everyone kept saying, 'It's Mother's Day. We can't let her lose two of her babies,'" Castrogiovanni said.
Someone called the police, who dispatched the city water works department. The salon stylists, soon joined by other Millyard employees, corralled the frantic mama duck and her other nine ducklings under a parked truck while they waited for help to arrive.
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"The mother was flipping out. She kept wanting the other two babies," Castrogiovanni said. "She was so upset. It was really sad."
The story has a happy ending. Two men from the water works department arrived to open the grate; they put a ladder down into the drain and one man climbed down to rescue the ducklings.
A mother duck was walking with her babies Friday when two of the ducklings fell down the sewer drain on Commercial Street in Manchester's Millyard. Employees from Not So Plain Jane's and the Jefferson Building kept watch on the mother and the ducklings, keeping them out of the street until Water Works employees arrived to lift the grate. The ducklings were rescued, and the mother and babies were walked to the Merrimack River, where they were met by a male duck who led the family into the water.

The human helpers gathered all the ducklings ....and let them out close to the Merrimack River. That's when they saw the male duck.
"He came out of the water. He went over to the family and I swear to God it looked like he was yelling at her. They were having a conversation," Castrogiovanni said.
"And then the whole family went into the water together."
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Reached yesterday at home, Thomas Bowen, director of Manchester Water Works, hadn't heard about the rescue. And while what his employees did may not have been exactly kosher, Bowen said they aren't in trouble.
"I think it's a great story," he said. "Particularly for the Mother's Day holiday."

subtitle should be :New Hampshire Town Struggling with Terms for Duck, Drake, and Duckling

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2009 07:40PM by Frank Furter.