The Duck is White and I'm Black and Blue

This is a continuation of the story I started about the Pekin duck I found dangerously close to a busy main road at the Park. If you haven't seen it, it would help to click the link to read it first.

The next day, I find myself dying at work. Had a massive toothache out of the blue, radiating into my eye and jaw. Left work for an X-ray and they said I had to see a specialist right then who'd fit me in. I drove back to work first to get some papers to bring with me, and I see a white fluffy butt on that lawn, STILL.

I could not stop now, but I thought about it all the way through the two + hour root canal I had done that afternoon. She shot me up with something just as I was leaving and told me that would help me when the novicaine wore off, but after that I ought to be where I needed to be for the rest of the night because I'd be in pain. Knowing I had an hour or so before I might be unable to function, I had to go save that duck. He was so far from any parking lot, it was going to be a hike, in boiling temps to boot. With a fresh root canal.

I parked in the lot near the fountains, and studied what I had in the trunk. I decided on a carrier, cracked corn, bread, and a blanket. My large net might have been good, but I'd left it at home. I bucked up and began the walk, thinking of my strategy the entire time. I decided to put the carrier down, and gently approach the duck, drop bread pieces and earn it's trust, then pick it up, put it in the carrier and take it to the lake.

Long story short, it didn't work. He was rather skittish and while interested in the bread, there was no way to get close. It's pretty clear that I was in a hurry under the circumstances, and he sensed that. Not my usual whisperer style... so I did what I never do -- I chased him. This is never a good thing. The animal always wins. I was wearing keen sandals, and if you know them you also know they have knobby rubber toe guards. Well I caught that on the edge of the kiddie railroad track and landed hard on my knees, then fell to the side on my right hip.

Here were the knees two days later. The one on my hip looked like I got it skiing (and falling) 0n the icy slopes of New England.And three days later, the bruises that had astonished me to begin with were MUCH worse -- 5 x larger -- on both knees.
What? Do I have a vitamin deficiency???? And yet, when I think it was all to save a duck, it makes me smile.

Oh yes, I did end up delivering him safely to the lake. To be continued....