hook, line and...patte'?

I'm pretty sure we told you about the two ducks outside, Foie and Gras, but after I blogged last we realized there was a third duck as well. We decided to name this one Patte'. (We work in restaurants, what do you want from us?) Well we consider all these ducks our pals. When we step outside, if they're around at the time, they'll stop what they're doing to come hang out. Sometimes we feed them Honey Nut Cheerios even though there's an obvious sign that says not to. We've really acquired a soft spot for our little duckies. Well a few days ago, Rach and I were sitting in the living room sipping coffee and watching TV. Every morning Mike and "D" come in at 8:30 to do constuction on the bathroom so they were here as well. We glanced outside the sliding glass doors that seperate the living room from the patio and saw Patte' sitting outside our door. This was not unusual becomes sometimes the ducks hang out on the patio and stare inside waiting for us to come out. We went outside to say good morning. When we first walked out we could tell he was standing funny. His mouth seemed slighted opened and his head was pushed down and cocked to the side. Rachel noticed she could see something yellow by his neck. We walked behind him to investigate. We were terrified to realize that Patte had a fish hook stuck through the bottom his beak so big that he couldn't close his mouth. To make it a million times worse, the other (hooked) end of the fish hook was jabbed into his wing. He couldn't even move his neck because the double sided hook was so short. We tried to approach him so we could see if we could help him. We still hadn't touched our ducks and he obviously didn't want to be touched. It was obvious however, that he wanted help. He was just standing at the door of the patio waiting for us to come outside. Mike was outside too and called the manager office to see who we should call. They gave us the number of some non profit animal sanctuary. Rachel called while I tried to further assess poor little Patte's situation. I kept wondering how long he'd been like this. All night? My heart was beating so fast and my fear quickly turned into anger. You're not even supposed to fish in the lake! What kind of asshole leaves these things around? Pate's must be so scared. The animal sanctuary informed us that they do not come get animals, but if we wanted to catch him and bring him in, they would help him. Mike said he would catch him for us and Rachel and I went inside and lined a big box with a beach towel. Rachel went outside and started the car while I returned outside with Mike. Once I was outside with the box, we cornered poor Patte' and through a blanket over him. "D" held him down to see if he could get the hook out. It was really in there, on both ends, and we didn't want to further hurt our duck friend. I pet Patte's head while Mike was at least able to cut the linking piece so that he could at least move his head again. We gently put Patte in the box and I took him out to the car. We drove the ten long minutes to the animal sanctuary, reassuring Patte with soothing words the whole time. We finally got there and had to walk past a huge mountain lion in a cage and some parrots to get to the animal hospital. When we got there, we were so relieved. The supervisor was standing right where we walked in. "Hey, what do we have here?" She says. "A duck." Since we had called I figured they might be expecting us. I handed her the box containing our injured friend. As she took if from me she asked if I wanted the box back. I told her it didn't matter as long as we got our duck back. "We can't give you the duck back." Wait, What!? "What do you mean?" She explained to us that they weren't a vet, they were a non-profit. The duck was a non-native invasive species and once we turn it over to them, they are now in charge of it and cannot, by law, give us our pal back. For a second Rach and I just stood in disbelief. This duck had a great home...it had friends. "What will you do with him?" "Well, if we can get the hook out then we try to find it a home." We didn't understand...this duck already had a home. I asked if Patte' would have the opportunity to fly back to his original home once he was placed in his new home if he so chooses. The answer was no. He would be living in a confined sanctuary. She told us she'd give us a few minutes to think about this. We would have to choose whether to leave him in their care, or try a vet who would probably give it back to us. The superivisor had to go outside to speak to animal control and we were left with someone else who worked there. A really sweet girl around our age. She saw we were upset and explained the law to us again. She told us that we'd have to lie to the vet a little and say that we planned to get Patte's wings cropped and that we had a good home for him. She wasn't sure how much a vet would cost. We also knew that taking him to a vet would mean more time with the hook. I asked the girl if they killed animals if they couldn't find them a home. I absolutely did not get the answer I wanted. Now this decision was really hard. Patte' had come to us for help and now he might die because of our decision. The girl lowered her voice. "Did you try to take the hook out yourselves?" We told her we had tried but didn't try hard. We didn't know anything about ducks and didn't want to hurt Patte' further. She glanced outside and bent down toward the box. In five seconds she had the hook out of his mouth. She fumbled with the wing for a bit. She stood up. "Ok, I can get the hook out. But not infront of my boss. Just say you've decided to take him to a vet". Our eyes shot open. Was she serious!? This girl was about to risk her job and break the law for us and Patte'. She ran in the back to get pliers. She came back quickly and got to work. We heard two loud clicks and watched her slide something shiny and silver into her hoodie pocket. Then the pliers followed. She looked at us and smiled. We scooped up the box and thanked her probably too many times and way too loud. This was supposed to be a secret secret operation. She hurried away from us with a quick "you're welcome" since we obviously weren't playing it as cool as she asked us to play it. Talk about an act of kindness. We took our pal home and fed him Cheerios outside on our patio. Where he belongs. -lj