Sweet animal rescue stories thread

I am really getting down lately with all the animal abuse stories that seem like they are neverending and so I am creating this thread where we can all share a story that will be uplifting about a time that we have helped or saved an animal in need. I try to do things like this whenever possible.....but one thing inparticular happened last year when I went to another state to stay with a friend for a month. In her neighborhood cats roamed pretty freely but one of them was really thin with a pot belly and I noticed she would be outside all the time...even in the rain, whereas the other cats would go home. She was so sweet and came running up to me every time I came home and she would purr and meow. She was so super thin with a bloated belly so I wasnt sure if she was sick or what. I got her some food and water and put it out for her everyday for about a week untill I had time to take her to the local spca. ( My friend wouldnt let her come in and there was no way to keep her) but then she disapeared for a week. Anyway, when she finally came back she was really hungry so I fed her and put her in a box and we made the trip down to the shelter. Its a good thing we got there because as it turned out she was pregnant and about to pop! They told me she would be going straight to a foster family to have her kittens and that she would be well taken care of. So I was so happy that she found me and hung around so that she didnt end up having to have the babies in a ditch somewhere with no food or water or shelter. So I know....its no big deal....but I still smile whenever I think about it. I would have adopted her except that I was due to return home and she wasnt ready for adoption.
Ok....your turn

 

One day, I was at a local park pond and heard a distressed peeping sound. I walked around trying to locate it. I finally found it was echoing out of a large spillway in the pond. I realized a baby duck had fallen down this drain.

I took a paddleboat out into the pond and floated near the spillway to see what's up. The spillway was literally a straight drop at least 15 feet deep, into a pitch black, cavernous pit. A baby duck sucked into this pit was doomed.
I talked to the teenage boy working the snack bar about the baby duck. He proceeded to make a call to his supervisor which included phrases like "It doesn't really matter", "They can get out anyway," and "I hate people like this."
We later talked to a maintence man who proclaimed, "There are too many ducks anyway, they're creating a health hazard (?!)" and "making a grate would be too much work," and proceeded to laugh about baby ducks being killed by various hazards.
For over three months I met with the overseers at that park on a near-weekly basis. First, building a grate was too much of a hassle. When they realized that I wasn't going to forget this issue, they couldn't build it because it would "catch debris." So, I went home and thought of a way to build a grate that would be low enough that even small ducks couldn't be sucked down, but high enough that floating debris could pass under. Weeks passed as they had to pass my suggestion and diagrams through various levels of bueracracy.
In the meantime, I spoke with more managers and supervisors and maintence workers than I'd like to remember.
Finally, at the beginning of fall, I was walking through the park when I looked up and saw it: Horizontal bars around the spillway gate. I wrote a letter of thank-you to the park and maintence managers, and I've never heard terrified peeping echoing out of that pit since.

 

do u think its alright to "keep" a pet?

 

I saved a slug from my mom's garden.

 

That's awsome guys Peacegal I applaud your persistance!
Maes, I do think it is alright to keep a pet(they are more like members of the family than a "pet" that I "keep". I dont like that term much)...I have a cat and soon I will have a new dog and trust me, they get treated like royalty...hehe. However, I dont personally agree with keeping anything that has to be kept in a cage. I understand that people have to do so in order to keep things like birds and reptiles, but I dont think those types of animals should be kept as pets. I know others have a different opinion, and that it is something that definatley wont change in my lifetime. I just wish the notion of caging never began in the first place.