Betsy Ross from Visalia, California, is a mother to three children and she did not know that a trip to a park will give her another added responsibility of rearing and then looking after another kid but in a whole new way.
Betsy, her husband, and her children went to the park to play. The family found that there was a smashed duck nest lying nearby. When they followed it and looked closely they found that it was something intact and had life into it. It was a lone egg, which had a small crack and something right then prompted Betsy to do everything that she could to save that life, which was struggling to survive.
The family got the egg home carefully and Betsy started incubating it by keeping it in her brazier in her cleavage. She kept it in her bra for 35 days before putting it in a handmade hatching box.
Though Betsy is an independent contractor doing sign language, this point in time she was out of work. She said, "I couldn't afford an incubator, so I called our local wildlife place but they told me they didn't take eggs".
Betsy figured out that the egg needed humidity and warmth so decided to just keep the egg where it was. "My boobs sweat in heat. All that I had to do then was rotate the egg 4-5 times a day."
She took to the internet and researched how to look after a hatching egg. She found out that the egg rotation, which she was doing was wrong and that she had to create an environment that was suitable.
Eventually, Betsy got a lamp, a plastic container, gallon baggies, a bowl of water, and a lot of tape, and made a hatching box herself.
She put the egg into the hatching box and patiently waited for it to hatch. After a day, something seemed wrong so she called the vet. Turns out, the duckling was being shrink-wrapped by the membrane in the egg. The vet replied that Betsy needed to be very careful and slowly peel the shell away, avoiding veins and making sure the duckling's nose was where he could breathe. So she did.
"He eventually got out half-way but was still connected to the yolk on the bottom of the egg," Betsy said. She added that the reason probably for this was unstable temperature.
She said that, "I got a wet paper towel and wrapped it around the shell with the yolk and put Neosporin on it so it wouldn't get infected. Maybe not the best idea but I was scared."
When the duckling absorbed it, he was weak and could not move well but Betsy did not give up and assisted him to have water bit by bit.
Then one day the duckling was walking and Betsy would occasionally let him swim in the tub and mud puddles.
The little fellow then started following Betsy wherever she went and started to take her as his new found mother. Betsy told the world what motherhood was all about by erasing boundaries between human beings and animals and just kept it the way it is suppose to be; 'loving and profound'.
