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Wayward Ducklings Rescued From Sewer Grate In Carrick

CARRICK (KDKA) -- With no way out, the future looked grim Thursday for some ducklings, that is until a few City of Pittsburgh workers came through.

A sewer grate is not a great place for a frightened flock of fuzzy ducklings. The fearful five had apparently fallen through the grate, on Minooka Street in Carrick.

Pittsburgh Public Safety was first on the scene, and then Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority came to the rescue.

Loosening those thick metal barriers is tougher than it looks. Heavy equipment like hammers and crowbars were brought in, the top was lifted off and the ducklings, one by one, were lifted out.

Celena Celender inherited the temporary role of mama duck.

"We get calls on ducklings probably a couple times a year. They're walking with their mom and they fall through the sewer grate," said Celender, of Pittsburgh Public Safety. "We call PWSA, they lift it up and get them out. Sometimes they can be reunited with the mother. Unfortunately, the mom's not here in this case. She took off. She was scared. So we'll take them to the Animal Rescue League and they'll take them out to their Wildlife Center in Verona."

But if they hadn't been discovered, there wouldn't have been a happy ending.

"If nobody noticed them, they probably wouldn't have made it," Celender said. "There's no opening in the sewer down there."

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At the Wildlife Center they'll be raised by humans to be released back into the wild where they can start a duck dynasty all their own.

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