My mom could beat up your mom!

So a few days ago I witnessed some fierce mama love and protection.

Every Spring we spot some ducks roaming our neighborhood.

They waddle up and down the street like some sort of springtime street gang.

This year it's a mama duck and her twelve (yeah, 12) ducklings.

A few yards down from our house is a storm drain.

You can probably guess what happened next.

I came out to see a very anxious mama duck squaking her little feathers off.

She was standing over the storm drain with one little duckling right by her side.

As we looked down into the drain, we counted the other eleven very dazed babies.

Mama duck was beside herself. Although she didn't know how to help her little ones,

she never left them.

and she never stopped quacking to those ducklings.

Even as more people gathered around, she stayed unusually close to the drain.

My strong neighbors, Rich, Shane and Paul were able to use a crobar and a metal hook to get the storm drain raised and open.

Rich jumped down into the drain and gathered the ducklings up in a net.

All eleven babies were safely returned to a mama ready to get her little brood outa there.

Now I know she's a duck but I couldn't help thinking that she must have been relieved. Ducks have feelings right? I mean, she didn't just say, "hey, I've still got one more, I'll just leave these other one's here in this hole in the ground." She stuck around until they were all safe.

And she was also willing to accept help from others.

She waddled off with all of her twelve waddling behind her.

They were out of danger.
Until she rounded the corner and saw HIM staring at her.

No sooner had she managed to get the littles out of danger than an

even bigger threat shows up.
She had barely had time to recover before she was back in defense mode.

But again, she didn't run away. Instead, she turned to that cat and started giving it the what for. She wasn't about to let those ducklings become a feline feast.

She quacked and quacked until the cat finally turned tail and skedaddled.

Made me realize how important it is to be vigilant as a mother.

It's a 24/7 job that we never take a break from.

We would never leave our children defenseless or alone.

There will always be something lurking around the corner and

our kids are gonna get in some sticky situations.

But they must know that we won't leave them.

They must know that we will ask for help in order to care for them.

They must know that we will fight to protect them.

Not just sometimes, not just in some situations..always.

My children must know that they can call to me and that I will come to them.

They must know that they are the reason I breath.

And I've got a pretty fierce quack so....