Your morning adorable: Patient duck babysits a litter of abandoned kittens

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When animals from different species put aside their differences and become the best of friends, Unleashed will be there. (At least, we’ll really try to be there, because we could watch videos depicting such inter-species friendships for days on end, stopping only to eat the occasional snack or take a brief nap before firing up the old computer again.)

We were overjoyed when we saw the video above, in which a (male) duck named Harry is mistaken for mom by a litter of tiny abandoned kittens. (For his part, Harry seems to be overjoyed -- or, at the very least, exceedingly tolerant -- as well.)

Harry is a resident of Lucky Duck Rescue, a bird sanctuary specializing in the care of rescued wild ducks and geese and surrendered bird pets located right here in Southern California. Lucky Duck sounds like a water-loving bird’s paradise (or a kitten’s, for that matter) to us. At the facility, the birds are kept in pens overnight, but, with the exception of some that are blind or have difficulty walking, they’re all free to roam a fenced outdoor area complete with pools, shade trees and feeding stations during the day.

It’s a nice enough place that, according to the group, one injured crow that was nursed back to health and released back into the wild years ago continues to roost in trees on the property, despite the fact that he is free to go wherever he pleases.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: luckyduckrescue via YouTube