Nearly everyone at All Things Wild Rehabilitation, a sanctuary for injured, orphaned and displaced wildlife in Georgetown, can agree on one thing: Polly, the sanctuary's 1-year-old Pekin duck, has never known a stranger.
"She's very clingy to everybody here," said Jessica Green, one of Polly's caretakers. "She loves being a loved duck."
Green said Polly was brought to the sanctuary last October after losing part of her bill in what staff members believe was an animal attack.
"We think that Polly came as an Easter gift for a kid ... and somebody got tired of all of the work that it takes to raise a little duckling, so they dropped off her and her mate at a pond in Leander," Green said.
After being dropped off at the pond, staff members at All Things Wild believe Polly was attacked by a snapping turtle, resulting in the injury to her bill. Her mate was found dead.
As a Pekin duck, Green said, Polly was never meant to live in the wild.
"They're a domestic duck here. Not native," she said. "Releasing them to local ponds and lakes … there’s just very low chances of survival."
But, against all odds, Polly did survive and captured both the hearts and minds of Georgetown residents.
One of those residents is Ryan Andrade, a junior at Southwestern University. He said a couple of months ago, All Things Wild reached out to the university's 3-D printing lab to inquire about the possibility of creating a prosthetic bill for Polly.
A prosthetic bill would allow Polly to groom herself and preen feathers that are molting out of her back — something she currently can't do without help.
"We said, ‘Sure, we’ll give it a go. We’ll give it a shot, right?’" Andrade said. "From there, we’ve just kind of jumped in the deep end doing all of the research and all of the scanning and modeling required… and I’m happy to say that we’ve actually made quite a bit of progress."
Andrade said the lab hopes to have a prosthetic bill for Polly to try on by the beginning of the summer.
Jusak Wang Bernhard and Jeff Manley, the owners of Wag Heaven, a pet supply store chain in Georgetown, heard about these efforts and decided to raise funds for Polly's new bill.
The pair now sells plush duck dog toys at their stores in honor of Polly.
"It's definitely something I think people can relate to," Manley said. Buying a duck toy, he added, gives people "something that they can hold onto and say, 'Look, I helped make this happen.'"
Bernhard and Manley said they are impressed by the community's reaction to the fundraiser.
"I think that's what Georgetown is about, I feel," Bernhard said. "We're always about the community. We're always about supporting each other."
