A rescue that played out on a South Surrey street this week culminated in a fairy-tale ending that would have made even Mother Goose proud.
The dramatic duck-tale began around 5 p.m. Tuesday, as Shaunna Kelsey – who had just returned from an unplanned outing to pick up wine for after dinner – was watching a mother duck and her flock of young ones waddle along a stretch of road near Sunnyside Elementary.
Her delight turned to horror, however, as the family encountered a storm drain, and three of the ducklings dropped out of sight.
“Just as they were starting to round the corner, mummy and a few of the ducklings started to go around the grate. Just then, I saw one fall in, two fall in, three fall in,” Kelsey said.
“My heart sank, and mummy was screaming.”
Kelsey said after unsuccessfully trying to heave the heavy grate aside herself, she recruited her husband, retired RCMP officer Drew Grainger, to effect a rescue – catching the entire process on video.
“It’s OK, Momma, we’re gonna get your babies,” Kelsey tells the mother duck, who can be seen – and heard – anxiously waiting in the background as Grainger reaches in and searches for the unfortunate youngsters.
And almost as quickly as the trio vanished, they were reunited with their mother.
Kelsey, who works at Langley Chrysler, said it was a right-time-right-place kind of moment.
“I usually never leave the house once I’m home,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have left last night to do that, nobody would’ve heard them, nobody would’ve seen them.
“Everything was meant to be, I guess.”
tholmes@peacearchnews.com
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