Hearing God’s Quack: How a routine morning turned into a rescue mission

On a busier-than-usual Tuesday morning recently, I find myself loading my car with cases of bulky camera equipment before driving to an important event at the National Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux in a nearby Chicago suburb. I have my headphones on listening to NPR’s Radio Lab while I hurriedly shuttle back and forth between the car and the house. It’s a long time before I notice the duck.

Summer brings beautiful views of our koi pond behind the Carmelite priory where I live along with some furry visitors during the night. On this particular morning I’ve come across an unusually loud and energetic duck that is following me step for step from the house to the car and back, watching me intently and quacking with a rhythmic fervor. The quacking doesn’t let up so I start to think that maybe she is just a very in-your-face kind of “city duck” from the Southside of Chicago where our community resides. But as I walk back to the house a final time with my new web-footed friend in tow, my curiosity finally gets the best of me. I turn around, take my headphones out of my ears, and really look at her. She lets out a steady series of quacks that sound pained and urgent. [more]

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