Happy Ending

DC firefighters pluck baby ducks from storm drain
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May 18, 12:24 PM (ET)

(AP) Ducklings that were rescued from a storm drain by District of Columbia fire fighters are seen in...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Firefighters plucked four baby ducks from a storm drain Monday after the rescuers heard the mother squawking for her hatchlings in a bustling Washington neighborhood known more for nightlife than wildlife.

Firefighters at Engine Company 9 noticed a duck "screaming at a storm drain" in an alley, fire department spokesman Alan Etter said. When they took the cover off the drain, they found four ducklings swimming about six feet down, he said.

The firefighters took all the ducks, including a fifth duckling that had stayed by its mother's side, to a nearby police station, where they were handed over to animal control, Etter said.

Animal control officials said the ducks were brought to a rehabilitation center, which will release them back into the wild once they are healthy enough.

Suzanne Pope, who lives in a nearby building, said she noticed the duck family over the weekend. She said the mother had built a nest out of newspapers under her van.

Pope said she used her cousin's car so she wouldn't have to disturb the ducks and brought them a pail of water.

Pope, whose own children are 25 and 11, said she is still trying to figure out what brought the mother and her ducklings to her neighborhood, where there isn't any water that might attract the birds.

"The mother was so tiny, and the ducklings were so weak," said Pope, 45. "I kept calling the police department. I said, 'From one mother to another, could you make sure she's OK?'"

Heres another one

Plumber uses snake with camera to find cat in wall
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May 18, 9:12 PM (ET)

MARION, Ark. (AP) - When Bubba the cat disappeared inside the home he shares with Cheryl and Phillip Albers, they knocked holes in walls looking for him, but he couldn't be found. Bubba's meows could be heard through the night last Monday, Cheryl Albers said, after he vanished following a visit from an air-conditioner repairman.

Bubba normally hides high atop a kitchen cabinet when there is a stranger in the house that he doesn't want to meet, Albers said. He wasn't there, however, after the repairman left.

Taking their cue from where they thought the meowing was coming from, the Albers cut holes in the walls of their dining room, their hallway and their closet. Then, they cut through the floor boards in their attic and ripped out insulation - all to no avail. The meows continued, but there was no sign of the cat making them.

Finally, on Thursday, the Albers called Roto Rooter.

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"We're plumbers, not cat finders," Roto Rooter's Fred Simmons told Memphis, Tenn., television station WMC.

But using a camera-equipped metal snake to search between the walls, Simmons turned out to be a cat finder after all.

"We just run the camera down through it and seen two eyes," Simmons said.

Bubba had fallen into a hole in the wall at her favorite hiding place and got stuck in a narrow passageway between the cabinet and the wall. After putting one more hole in the hall closet, Bubba was set free.

"She's really good today," Albers said Friday. "She's eating and drinking and we're all happy again."

In typical cat style, Bubba snubbed the man who saved her life, but her owner couldn't be more grateful.

Simmons said Roto Rooter won't be charging the Albers for the hours spent looking for Bubba.

But Bubba's adventure won't be cheap - they still have to repair the damage they did to their home.