BERKELEY – You might have seen videos online of people rescuing animals from a storm drain. But you probably don’t expect to be starring in one of those videos.
Robin Bausback lives in the Berkeley Shores area of town. She was running out to get bagels in anticipation of some friends coming over. She was stopped at a busy intersection – Veeder Lane and Mill Creek Road – waiting for four directions worth of cars to make it through.
But the cars weren’t just waiting for traffic. They were waiting for a mother duck and a trail of ducklings to make it through the intersection. Robin said the moment was heartwarming – this many people waiting patiently. No one was beeping or yelling. Just letting nature go by.
However, while she was watching the ducks go by, she saw four ducklings slip into the drain. The momma moved the rest of her crew into nearby brush and waited.
Robin said she remembered a video a friend had sent her of a baby deer falling into a drain. In that case, the mom was waiting, too.
“Animals are so much smarter than we think,” she said.
Robin hustled to the drain to see how they could help. She called 911 and police officers showed up right away. They were able to lift up the drain. Robin’s neighbor, Kathleen Carman, scooped the ducklings up with a long-handled pool net.
The four babies were cheeping loudly as they were placed on the sidewalk. They were too dazed and scared to know what to do since their mom was in the underbrush hiding from the people.
They had to get scooped back into the net and carefully carried over to the underbrush, where mom excitedly called to her family and they found each other.
In the adrenaline rush, Robin never got the officers’ names.
“This was not the first time the police helped me,” she said, telling the story of when there was a stray dog running on a busy street. She called the police and they were able to corral the animal and find its owner.
Thinking back on it, she wondered if there is any way to prevent animals from falling down the drains in the first place, but if there isn’t, she’s glad that there are good people out there to pick them up when they fall.
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