You never know when life is going to throw a moral dilemma in your path. It happened to me, literally on a path, on Tuesday night.

Linda and I were out for a walk and heading up from the brilliant new playground at Miners Lane in Clyde when we found a duckling on its back, unable to right itself and looking a lot worse for wear.

There were a number of options open to me, hence the moral dilemma.

I could have walked on pretending I never saw it. I could have put it out of its misery (this is hypothetical, I could no more do that than get a perm). I could take it home and care for it, which was not appealing, plus we have a cat. (A fat, useless, neurotic cat that a dying duckling would likely terrify, but nonetheless.)

 Anyway, luckily I had little time to ponder these options as I had Linda with me and so rescuing the duckling was going to be the only option open to us. But once it was snuggled up in her down jacket (the irony, right?), what the hell do we do now became the obvious question.

Then I had a moment’s inspiration.

By incredible good fortune, I had received a message just days before from Avian Rescue Otago. I don’t know about you, but I had no idea this awesome group existed. 

We drove Donald (Daisy according to Linda) into Alexandra and the care of Alan, who identified it as a native scaup duckling that had a head injury and was suffering seizures.

Donald/Daisy was given medication to stop the seizures and dextrose to lift its blood sugar up. He was then placed in a heated ICU unit and, at this stage, is doing well.

What an amazing organisation to have in our area, caring for our wildlife all on a voluntary basis. You can find out more about the work they do, and how you can donate to help them in their work, on their facebook page Avian Rescue Otago.

I’ll let you know Donald’s outcome when I do.