For the second time in two weeks, I came across a duck family in need of rescue. Last week I stopped a dozen cars stopped behind me to let the duck family cross the road.

This time, we had another happy ending. But this one almost turned out badly.

Maria was driving me to the podiatrist, and we came over a hill, and we both saw a momma duck with her ducklings waddling right down the middle of the road.

We stopped the car, and I jumped out and started walking behind the ducks, moving to the left to get the mother to move over to the right and off of the right.

A truck from a local restaurant came speeding down the hill behind us and didn’t even slow; he or she went around us at high speed and nearly collided with a car coming in the opposite direction.

He couldn’t bear to slow down for a minute.

Luckily, the oncoming car stopped and swerved instantly, and the truck cut around the ducks – he could easily have driven into them.

This being American in 2021, he or she was probably outraged that we slowed him down.

As I got closer – Maria was following close behind me – the mother walked over to the right and into the woods, taking her sweet time about it.

When I got home, I called the restaurant to complain about the driver, but they were closed until the next day. I’ll call back then. I intend to pursue it; this was way too close to ignore.

The photo below is of the ducks walking off of the road.

I suspect she was headed for the river a half-mile away. The photo is fuzzy because Mom was moving pretty fast to get away from the strange man waving his arms and hobbling erratically on his one good shoe towards her.

She turned around in the way ducks do and looked annoyed, not frightened. Ducks have a sense of entitlement, like Boston Terriers.

I would have run for my life if I saw that rushing at me, shouting.

Everybody was all right. It feels terrific to save a duck and her babies. I hope I get to do it again.