NuvvuNikki: As someone who spent 4 hours getting 3 ducklings out of the gratings covered window wells at my work building, I can only salute.

Also: have a pole with a hoop with netting on it in your trunk to save ducklings: Their little claws (ducks have fingernails on their feet!) get stuck in the netting when you scoop them and can be retrieved pretty easily (discovered this 3:45 hours into the ordeal).

you're an angel!

copy/pasta from another fred...

on some tv show following around the RSPCA or London Wildlife or whatever, there was a kitten down a drain pipe left uncovered during building work.
looot of concrete all around, no other ingress, really not looking good.

bunch of builders standing around... hardened types with blurry tattoos, but none of that 'this is costing me money!' grumbling... you could hear the kitten mewing tinily and plaintively, and builders had big eyes in anxious faces just like animal control ppl.

RSPCA dude took off shirt etc and got down flat on the ground just in a tshirt.
and by reaching absolutely as far in as he could with a bare arm, face pressed into the dirt, he could juuust reach the kitten and yoink it out.
tell you what I was anxiously glued to the screen.  whole thing nearly killed me, til he brought out this tiny, dirty kitten, a scrap of fur as they say.
and amongst the out of focus hovering builders in the background, there was a visible body language reaction.  tension melting, tautly held stances literally flung away.  there may have been a small, embarrassed cheer.

I avoid those shows these days, they mess with me too much!

I actually love squirrels, they're so fking cute.  something about their furry little butts

something cartoon-y cute.  not irresistibly alluring!

don't bother telling me they're mean.  nature's mean.