Here's a little story about a duck named "feathers"
Imagine a man who works with his hands is outside working and sees a mama duck. Now imagine that mama duck has a trail of 10 or so baby ducklings behind her (I'm talking BABY baby ducks...itty bitty ones). Mama duck is walking along a tall wall and sees some stairs so she goes down them. The baby ducks, still waddling in a line behind each other, stay on the wall, unaware of mom's diversion. Mom waddles along a bit more, realizes that the babies have not followed her, and calls up to them. The babies, in angst over their mother's separation, attempt to jump to her. One after one, the baby ducklings don't survive. Perhaps only 3 of the ten make the jump safely. One of them has a hurt foot and cannot keep up as momma duck waddles away with the remaining 3 of the original 10 baby ducks. All of this is viewed by the man working with his hands outside. He sees the injured duck and makes his way to it, scoops it up into his hat and nurtures it as he brings it home. Now image that man has a daughter. That daughter LOVES animals and quickly comes to the aid of the duck and names it "feathers". The girl helps her father make a crate for "feathers" and raise it from barely a handful of down to a full grown adult duck. She feeds it, plays with it, cares for it and eventually realizes that ducks are better off in the wild. She comes to a hard realization of the love it takes to set something free. It takes a special kind of heart to make a sacrifice like that. Imagine this proud mom and dad sniffing and blinking as their daughter releases "feathers" into a lake.
