A little girl who hopes to someday become a veterinarian, was able to put her love for animals to work on Saturday, when she rescued eight little ducklings from a drainage pipe in Laguna Hills, to the relief of the mother duck.
According to the Orange County Register, Skye Rabii and daughter Mia, 6, had just left a doctor’s office when they noticed a woman and her family asking for help retrieving nine ducklings that had fallen down a drainage pipe that was missing a cap.
The woman was able to retrieve one of the fuzzy ducklings, but her adult arms were unable to fit into the pipe to rescue the remaining eight — which is when Mia’s mom reminded her daughter that she always wanted to be a vet.
Mia reportedly said “I can do it” and reached her right hand down the pipe up to her shoulders to pull out the remaining babies.
Mia, who was wearing a a shirt with a penguin and sticker with a giraffe on it during the time of the rescue, took each retrieved duck one-by-one and returned them to their mother.
The Register noted that “the mama duck seemed relieved to get her babies back. The dad duck stood there and watched.”
The duck family, once again reunited, waddled off on their merry way and the pipe’s end was blocked off by the office complex to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s incident.
In June of last year, a duckling that was trapped in the embankment of a pond at a Netherlands Zoo received help from a pair of hippos who used their snouts to give the little one a boost and reunite it with its mother.
Photo: file
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.